It hurts, my friends, to have to report once again on an obscene terror attack.
At about 4:15 in the afternoon yesterday, Tuesday, at a gas station on Route 60, outside of the community of Eli in the Binyamin region, two masked Palestinian Arab terrorists drove up.
One, armed with an M16 assault rifle, entered a humus restaurant located at that site and began shooting at people.
He exited the restaurant still shooting and was killed by Morel Nickel, who is part of a civilian security force in Eli. He was wounded in the exchange but kept shooting until the terrorist stopped moving.
The second terrorist, who also had an assault rifle, grabbed a car at the gas station and fled the area north towards Shechem. Elite IDF Yamam special forces and Shin Bet personnel located him about two hours later near the village of Tubas. Details are a bit obscure: it appears he abandoned the car at one point and jumped into a taxi. A shootout ensued, and he was shot and killed.
There had been early reports of the possibility of a third terrorist, but that no longer seems to be the case.
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In all, eight Israelis were shot, and four of them were pronounced dead at the scene when they could not be resuscitated by United Hatzalah paramedics. (Those are United Hatzalah medical motorcycles in the picture above.)
Four others – one in critical condition, two in fair condition and one in good condition – were taken to the hospital. Additional persons had to be treated for shock.
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The victims of these vicious murders have been identified. More information has been released on some than on others. Once information begins coming in, so that we can see who was killed, it becomes terribly real. I always say that it is good people who are taken, and it is true here.
Harel Masoud, 21, a resident of Yad Binyamin in central Israel, had recently been released from the army and was planning to farm. When I first looked at his picture, what occurred to me was that he had gentle eyes, reflecting a gentle soul. A friend of his said that he was a “golden guy, handsome and bursting with values…He loved the Land of Israel and its people. He dreamed of settling this land and worked to fulfill his dream.”
Elisha Anteman, 18, a resident of Eli, was in the restaurant because he worked there as a waiter. He was a 12th-grade student at the Bnei Akiva yeshiva high school. The head of the yeshiva said that he was full of charisma and was always looking out for others. “He wasn’t afraid of any challenge and set goals for himself that he was constantly working toward.”
Nahman Shmuel Mordof, 17, was from Ahiya in Binyamin.
Ofer Fayerman, 60, was a resident of Eli. He was shot at the gas station while filling his car. I believe it may have been his car that the second terrorist then grabbed.
For all of them, I say, May the Almighty avenge their deaths.
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How many more times will this scenario be repeated? The reports and pictures from the funerals heighten the sense of pain.
Harel’s mother. Yael, crying, “How can I talk about you in past tense? You were just discharged from the army…and you were blooming. Now, when you were finally starting to live, fulfill your dream and settle the land you loved — now it has taken you into its earth…Your eyes spoke silently, modestly, and everyone was blinded by your internal and external beauty.”
Mourning for Nachman Ordoff, killed at 17:
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The terrorists were both members of the military wing of Hamas, and apparently both from the Arab village of Urif, near Shechem.
Hamas has taken credit for these murders, which they say are a “response to the crimes of the occupation in the Jenin camp yesterday and the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque.” Below I will describe what happened in Jenin – when the IDF came after terrorists. The charges about storming the mosque are, of course, routine nonsense.
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The mood in the country is very heavy, as might be expected. From many quarters there are cries demanding action that will stop this spate of terror murders.
Yesha Council Chairman, Shlomo Ne’eman, for example, said (emphasis added):
“The enemy which once again raised its head, must be eliminated. We cannot continue to absorb these blows and hope the wave of terrorism will just pass. We demand that the government launch a broad [military] operation. The IDF must remove its gloves because terrorism can only be dealt with using a heavy hand, alongside the continued building and development of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria, which will bring quiet to the region.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/373033
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Prime Minister Netanyahu, who held an emergency meeting of the Security Cabinet, said that “all options are open” regarding a response to this attack. While vague, this might be interpreted as meaning he was contemplating stronger action. But then he said:
“We have already proven in the past few months that we will settle the score with all the murderers, with no exceptions. Anyone who harms us, is either in prison or in a grave. This will also be the case here.”
But I found this to be a totally unsatisfactory response. Threats that all terrorists who murder Jews will end up in prison or dead is very weak. As they wish to be martyrs, we don’t know if that has the slightest deterrent effect.
What we need is assurance that new actions will be taken that make it more difficult for terrorists to act against us. For he also said, “We will continue to fight terror at full power and we will defeat it.” The evidence on the face of it is that this is not the case. And that is the entire point.
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Our IDF forces and Shin Bet have been working with considerable diligence in the areas of Samaria that are terrorist hotbeds, such as Jenin. But, as I have written before, critics of what is going on point out that there is not an on-going action, but pinpoint discrete operations that do not suffice.
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Military analyst Yaakov Lappin describes what happened in Jenin on Monday and looks at the implications (emphasis added):
“The fact that the Israel Defense Forces needed to call in air support for ground forces in Jenin on Monday is a signal of a significant escalation in this Palestinian city, which has become a hornet’s nest of terrorism…
“IDF and Border Police units entered Jenin camp to capture two security suspects.
“A powerful explosive device damaged an armored IDF vehicle as the Israeli force was leaving, wounding Israeli personnel.
“The IDF decided to evacuate the injured via helicopter, but the aircraft came under fire, and that is when commanders decided to call in air support. A helicopter gunship fired on gunmen to enable the extraction of the Israeli forces, according to the Israeli military.
“Large-scale exchanges of fire between Palestinian gunmen in the IDF and large numbers of bombs were hurled during the clash, according to the Israeli military.
“Zooming out from this event, it is clear that Jenin is out of control, and that as time goes by, the chances of a larger-scale IDF operation there are growing.
“The Palestinian Authority is non-existent in the city despite nominally being in control there, and the area has turned into an active terror hub, not only for local terrorists, but also for those from other areas of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank.
“Recently, it is likely that several such terrorists fled to Jenin after attacking Israeli civilians or soldiers in other areas, viewing it as a safe haven. Large quantities of firearms are also flowing into the city, an arsenal of weaponry is amassing there.
“It is left to the IDF to repress the terrorist activity.
“Within Jenin, localized terror factions that call themselves ‘the Jenin battalions’ work in cooperation with established terror organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both of which maintain a strong presence in the city.”
Lappin cited Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, who says that a major operation is only a matter of time, and that one should have been launched a year ago.
https://www.jns.org/israel-palestinianconflict/idf/23/6/19/296350/
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On Monday evening, Channel Channel 13 News reported that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in closed conversations that there is currently no need for an extensive operation, but Israel will not hesitate to launch one if necessary.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372996
This was not well received in many quarters and there are now calls for Gallant to be fired.
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Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who reportedly spoke up vigorously at a security assessment meeting, called for increased military action even before the terror attack:
He said that there were a variety of considerations that cannot be discussed publicly, but “this saga will not continue much longer…We cannot afford to have entire areas without governance, where dangerous nests of terrorism develop…We are very close to a very significant action.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/373047
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I will return very shortly with news about judicial reform. A meeting that was scheduled to be held today was postponed out of respect for the terror victims.
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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
