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October 29, 2004
Soldier killed in Gaza mortar attack
MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
Sgt. Michael Chizhik, 21, of Tiberias, was killed and six others wounded, two seriously, when their post south of Morag in the Gaza Strip was hit by two mortar shells fired from Rafah on Thursday afternoon.
Soon after, snipers from nearby buildings opened fire as medics began treating the wounded soldiers. No one else was wounded.
The soldiers, all from the elite Givati Shaked unit, were standing in the yard of the post when the shells hit. Chizhik and two others, all of whom were critically wounded, were airlifted to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. Shortly after their arrival, Chizhik died.
At the same time, the post was reinforced. Tanks and bulldozers entered the area between the post and Rafah, acting as a buffer to prevent additional mortar attacks. Later, the bulldozers began clearing land, uprooting foliage at the site from which the mortars were fired.
An officer said he doubted that a widespread operation would be launched in response to the attack, but noted that the heavy vehicles would remain in the area. Earlier this week, the army launched an operation in the Khan Yunis refugee camp to stop mortar attacks on Gush Katif.
The attacked soldiers had lost their deputy company commander, Capt. Tal Bardugo, 22, of Jerusalem, as well as St.-Sgt. Yisrael Lutati, 20, of Neveh Dekalim, and St.-Sgt. Nir Sami, 21, of Jerusalem, after two gunmen infiltrated the same post last month.
Meanwhile, the IDF Spokesman’s Office said it had no knowledge of Palestinian reports that a schoolgirl, Rani Iyad Aram, eight, was shot as she walked to school in Khan Yunis on Thursday morning.
In the West Bank, elite troops killed senior Hamas member Ibrahim Issa and his deputy during a gun battle. A third gunman fled.
According to officials, Issa was planning a suicide attack and car bombing. He was also responsible for the explosion in which two soldiers were wounded near the agricultural crossing in the Kalkilya area last month.
Security forces in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp near Nablus arrested two Fatah youths who planned to launch a suicide attack in Israel. They were identified as Mayoub Marouf,16, and Ali Abu Alghoub.
In the Jenin refugee camp, soldiers from the Nahal Brigade arrested two Fatah Tanzim fugitives.
In the Gaza Strip, eight mortar shells were fired at IDF posts and settlements in Gush Katif and north Gaza, not including the attack on Morag; no one was wounded but several homes were damaged.
A Kassam rocket was fired into the western Negev. It landed in a cemetery, damaging it. Shots were fired and two bombs detonated near soldiers, and soldiers killed an armed youth.
On Wednesday, the Samaria Military Court sentenced Ahmed Ala’a Joisi, 25, the Hamas member who planned and dispatched the bomber who blew up in the Park Hotel in Netanya in March 2002, to 35 consecutive life sentences. Joisi also planned the attack at the Netanya mall in May 2001, in which five people were killed.
In Memoriam
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