Posted on 05/20/2003 6:19:30 AM PDT by Israel Insider
A security guard was killed and his partner, Hadar Gitlin, 20, was seriously injured when they prevented a female suicide bomber from entering a shopping mall in Afula. Two other Israelis were killed in the attack and nearly 70 people were wounded, many of them seriously.
Two of the victims of the Afula terror attack were identified on Tuesday:
Avi Zrihan, 36, of Beit Shean. Hassan Ben Ismail Tawatha, 41, of Jisr a-Zarqa.
Knesset member Matan Vilnai (Labor) today proposed legislation that would grant security guards killed or maimed by terrorist attacks the same rights as soldiers killed or wounded, Israel Radio reported. Vilnai's proposal is intended to improve conditions for the guards, a mix of mainly newly discharged soldiers and students trying to earn a living as they get started in life, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Doctors at Afula's Haemek Hospital fear they may have to amputate at least one of Gitlin's legs, ynet reported. Her condition was reported as serious, but stable. "At one point she opened her eyes and mumbled something, but we didn't want to disturb her," her father told ynet. He said that his daughter had recently been fired from a position at a café and had taken on the security job despite the security risk.
"Hadar was on a patrol with another security guard, for whom this was his first day on the job," Uzi Rice, a Magen David Adom worker said. "He was checking people trying to enter [the shopping mall] and all of a sudden his metal detector started chirping loudly."
Gitlin came to the guard's assistance and at that point the female suicide bomber detonated her explosives. Eight years ago, Gitlin's sister was seriously injured in the double suicide bombing attack at the Beit Lid, but managed to fully recover.
Security guards have been involved in a long list of terror attacks, frequently paying with their life as they fulfilled their security duties.
Security guard Avi Tabib was seriously wounded when he prevented a British suicide bomber from entering the Mike's Place bar on Tel Aviv's seafront promenade on April 30.
Alexander Kostyuk, 23, was killed on April 24 when a suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance to the new train station in Kfar Saba. Kostyuk asked to see the bomber's identity papers, and then the terrorist blew himself up.
Mikhail Sarkisov, a recent immigrant from Turkmenistan, had only been working as a security guard for three weeks when he utilized his Russian army experience to thwart a terrorist attack at a Tel Aviv cafe on October 11, 2002.
He's probably referring to NAZI attack dogs seen in film reels seen rounding up Jews for gassing.
There's probably not enough trained dogs in the world. I don't think they can work 8 - 12 hour shifts, and guards are required at the entrance of every place people gather.
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