Palestinians Seize Soldier After Attack
JERUSALEM _ Israel prepared for possible military action Sunday after Palestinian militants from Hamas and two other factions infiltrated from the Gaza Strip and attacked an army border post before dawn, killing two members of a tank crew and kidnapping a third.
The abduction of the soldier, who was apparently wounded, set off intensive diplomatic contacts to secure his release. Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz warned of a “painful” response to the attack, the first ground assault by militants from Gaza since Israel withdrew from the territory last summer.
Peretz said Israel “will do everything” to bring back the captured soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, and the spokesman of the Hamas-led Palestinian government called on the kidnappers not to harm him.
A joint claim of responsibility by the armed wing of Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Islam Army, a previously unknown group, called the attack near the Kerem Shalom border crossing retaliation for recent Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians and militants.
A PRC spokesman said it was avenging the death of its leader, Jamal Abu Samhadana, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on June 8. Abu Samhadana was the security chief of the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Subsequent Israeli strikes targeting militants in crowded Gaza neighborhoods killed 14 Palestinian civilians, several of them children and teenagers. The strikes came in response to stepped-up rocket fire at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
“Following a series of terrible Zionist crimes against our Palestinian people, including women and children and civilians, and following the crimes of assassination and arrest carried out by the Zionist enemy … the time of reckoning has come,” the militants’ statement said. “Time for the enemy to pay a high price in the blood of his occupying soldiers, so he will learn that the blood of our people is not cheap.”
The statement did not mention the capture of the soldier, nor did it set any demands for his release.
Army officials said a group of seven or eight militants crossed into Israel through a tunnel dug under the fence surrounding the Gaza Strip, emerging about 300 yards inside Israeli territory. The group attacked the army post from the rear about 5:30 a.m., supported by anti-tank and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip, the army said.
Splitting up into squads, the gunmen attacked an empty armored personnel carrier placed as a decoy, exchanged fire with soldiers in a guard tower and assaulted the tank, hurling grenades that killed and wounded crew members, one of whom was seized and taken to the Gaza Strip, the officials said.
The soldier’s bloodied ammunition vest was left behind, and his boot tracks were found leading to the border fence, where the attackers had blown open a hole for their escape. The army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said the soldier was believed to be alive, and the chief of the army’s manpower branch, Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern, said that he “went on his feet.”
The dead soldiers were identified as Lt. Hanan Barak, 20, and 1st Sgt. Pavel Slutsker, 20. Four soldiers were wounded, and two of the attackers were killed, the army said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pointed a finger at the Palestinian Authority.
“The State of Israel holds the Palestinian Authority, headed by chairman Abu Mazen, and the Palestinian government responsible for this event, with everything that implies,” Olmert said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by his nickname.
In a veiled threat to Hamas officials, Peretz warned that anyone who harms the kidnapped soldier “should know that the blood of the soldier will be on his head and on the heads of his leaders.”
“We intend to respond to the act committed this morning in a way that all those involved … will understand that the price will be painful, and if things don’t change it can be many times more painful,” Perez added.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers backed by helicopter gunships crossed into the Gaza Strip after the attack, raking the area with machine-gun fire and searching for the tunnel, whose entrance was found in a house on the outskirts of the town of Rafah, the army said. Israel closed all its border crossings to the Gaza Strip, choking off movement of people and goods.
Ghazi Hamad, the spokesman for the Hamas-led government, said it was in contact with Egypt and Abbas to resolve the crisis created by the abduction of the soldier. “We call on the resistance factions to protect his life and treat this soldier well,” he said, repeating his statement in Hebrew.
Abbas’ office said he had spoken with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, as well as with European diplomats and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The attack cast a shadow on talks between Abbas and Hamas leaders on a unified political platform that would implicitly recognize Israel, and Abbas’ office said that the action “violated understandings” to maintain a cease-fire.
“This will give Israel the excuse to continue the aggression, the incursions and the assassinations,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas.
___
(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
_____
NEWSCOM PHOTOS can be viewed at http://www.newscom.com/nc/visuals.html (Username: fpnews and Password: viewnc05 allow editors to view photos.) To purchase photos or to get your own NewsCom username and password, U.S. and Canadian newspapers, please call Tribune Media (800) 637-4082 or (312) 222-2448 or email to tmssales@tribune.com. Others contact NewsCom at (202) 383-6070 or email support@newscom.com. Use search terms: “hamas”
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.