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Posted on 03/03/2002 3:24:51 PM PST by Jhoffa_
Sniper Kills 10 More Israelis
JERUSALEM- Taking aim from a hilltop, a sniper killed 10 soldiers and civilians at a checkpoint Sunday in the deadliest of a two-day string of Palestinian attacks that killed 21 Israelis.
Israel sent tanks and helicopters on retaliatory raids that hit several Palestinian Authority security targets, killing four Palestinian policemen, while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Cabinet weighed additional military action.
Following the weekend bloodletting, Sharon huddled with senior government ministers and security officials and his office issued a statement just before midnight saying that the inner security Cabinet had approved military plans for ongoing attacks on Palestinian targets.
"Ministers approved an operational program presented by the army to apply constant military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian terror organizations," the statement said. "Its object is to halt Palestinian terror." It gave no further details.
Recent days have seen some of the worst carnage in months, and bitter comments by both sides pointed to further confrontations.
"There is no alternative but to put an end to (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat's rule," Israeli Cabinet Minister Dan Naveh said in remarks that are expressed with increasing frequency in Israel.
Speaking during an official visit to Mexico, Israeli President Moshe Katsav also denounced Arafat and called on Palestinians to question his leadership.
"The Palestinian people should ask which achievement their president brought to them in the last 18 months," Katsav said in Mexico City. "He must, he should do something to stop the violence."
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for three of the four lethal attacks carried out in a 12-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday morning, including the checkpoint shooting.
Militants had vowed to strike after Israeli forces pushed into two Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank last Thursday in search of militants believed responsible for earlier violence. During the incursions, 23 Palestinians were killed in three days, including gunmen, policemen and civilians.
"The Palestinian leadership considers the recent Israeli escalation ... to be aimed at destroying peace and security in the whole region," the Palestinian Authority said in a statement.
The Sunday morning shooting occurred at the military roadblock near the Palestinian village of Silwad. The army described it as an ambush carried out by a single sniper.
The gunman had a clear view from a hill overlooking the checkpoint. After the first Israeli was struck by gunfire, soldiers began climbing the steep hill toward the gunman and more were hit, witnesses said.
An army helicopter soon reached the area, but the assailant had escaped, said Hezi Tsur, a paramedic at the scene.
The dead included seven soldiers and three civilians. Six people were injured, the army and rescue services said.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades circulated a leaflet saying the shooting was in response to Israeli army actions in the two refugee camps.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a group of soldiers early Sunday along a road that runs on the Israeli side of the fence between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.
One soldier was killed and four soldiers were wounded, the army said. The military wing of the radical group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press.
The pair of Sunday morning attacks followed a suicide bombing by a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Saturday night in a crowded ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem. The bombing killed nine Israelis and wounded dozens.
The dead included two babies, one seven months and the other 18 months, and children ages 3, 7, 12 and 15.
"I searched the streets like a mad person, street by street - it was crowded with people and I just screamed and screamed," said Aviva Nachmani, who eventually found her three children unharmed.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also said it shot dead an Israeli police detective riding a motorcycle Saturday night along a desert trail in the West Bank, near Jerusalem.
Israel says Arafat bears responsibility for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and could halt their attacks if he was serious about ending the Palestinian violence.
Palestinian leaders denounced the suicide bombing and again said they oppose violence against civilians. But they say they cannot tell Palestinians to put down their weapons at a time when the Israeli military is regularly operating in Palestinian areas.
In retaliatory action Sunday, Israeli tanks shelled a Palestinian intelligence office south of Nablus, and the Palestinians said a policemen was killed.
Palestinians also reported a policeman killed when Israeli forces shelled a police installation outside Ramallah in the West Bank.
Two more policemen died when Israeli troops fired on a police post in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, the Palestinians said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli forces on Sunday pulled out of the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, where troops had searched for militants and weapons since Thursday.
In the Jenin refugee camp, about 20 miles away, the Israeli forces pulled out Saturday, but sent at least eight tanks back into the camp on Sunday afternoon, camp residents said.
Depends on who you kill. Sometimes the right kill at the right time can stop a whole bunch of killing later. Arafat should have been killed years ago.
No Moslems, no terror.
Trained snipers know that anything more than one or two shots is likely to bring down the wrath of the enemy in the form of airstrikes, artillery, etc. So for a sniper to remain in a position long enough to kill 10 people who were no doubt aware of his presence, shows some serious motivation/courage on his part.
If the Israel's run into a bunch of the enemy capable of the kind of sustained and accurate fire demonstrated here, then stationary outposts are a death trap. History shows that one well trained sniper is worth a whole company of grunts.
And you sir, can kiss the drivers side.
http://israelbehindthenews.com/Archives/Jul-09-01.htm
NECHO6: He'll never have the "moral capital" to ethnically cleanse the occupied territories- it would be immoral no matter what the provocation.
Well, I agree. What I was trying to describe was what I saw as the realpolitik analysis, not my own personal views. My personal view is that the occupied territories are a millstone around Israel's neck. But the settlers in the occupied territories, who seem to feel the land is divinely theirs, will never allow Israel to give the land back.
The problem, of course, is that if Israel keeps the occupied territories it's stuck with the 3 million Palestinians who live on the land and whose population is growing far faster than that of Israel proper. On the other hand, if Israel doesn't give up the territory, in 25 years it's overwhelmed demographically.
This is why I think some Israelis (including perhaps Sharon himself) believe the only solution is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from the land. In the benign version the Palestinians are financially compensated for the loss of their land (probably with U.S. help) and relocated in another country. In the harder version, the IDF kills some and pushes out the rest during the general chaos of the upcoming U.S./Iraqi war.
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DEBKAfile Special Military Analysis
4 March: The lone Palestinian sniper who, with 25 bullets from his old-fashioned carbine rifle, was able to kill 7 well-armed Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians - and wound another 4 - is the stuff of legend. Sprung on Israel national radio by its military correspondent, Carmela Menashe, on Sunday, March 3, the story has circulated over local and international media as a statement of fact. Circumstantial details piled drama onto the bloodbath perpetrated early Sunday at the Ofra roadblock. An unnamed soldier accused his superior officers of abandoning the roadblock unit to its fate; another said they had been sitting ducks.
In any case, the roadblock system, set up to impede the passage of terrorists from Palestinian-ruled areas to Israeli territory, is under urgent review. However, in the case of the Ofra roadblock, all the evidence gathered by DEBKAfile’s military sources refutes the tale put out by Israeli radio. Our military experts also challenge it as implausible.
Positioned between two hills near a disused British police post, north of Ramallah, the Ofra roadblock commands a key intersection on the Nablus-Jerusalem, Hebron-Jerusalem highways.
Our investigations show that before light Sunday morning, March 3, not one but three Palestinian gunmen took up positions on the hills enclosing the roadblock on both sides.
One, armed with an M-14 carbine, was positioned on the southeastern hill. This rifle may be dated, but many an expert marksman praises its precision and stability. The other two Palestinian gunmen stood on the opposite northwestern hill, armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a PK 500 General Purpose Machine Gun (comparable to a 7.62mm FN MAG).
The panel of inquiry will not doubt ask why no roadblock sentries were placed on the hilltops. That does not alter the sequence of events, as we have reconstructed them. The first shots against the roadblock were fired by the marksman armed with the M-14 before 0700 IT Sunday morning. He hit three Israeli soldiers. The two Palestinians on the opposite hill then opened heavy assault and machine gun fire on the falling men to make sure none survived. The rest of the unit, woken up in its temporary quarters by the gunfire, ran out half-dressed and shooting. As they approached the roadblock, four were caught in the crossfire from the two hills.
Reports that the roadblock unit was confused by echoes of gunshots coming from different directs were drummed up to substantiate the sniper tale. There were no echoes. The sounds of gunfire coming from different directions were real.
DEBKAfile built up this picture with the help of witnesses on the spot. At that hour of the morning, at least three cars were lined up at the roadblock waiting to go through and there were plenty of travelers on foot. Furthermore, identifiable cartridges from the different weapons used were collected from three different firing positions on the high ground surrounding the roadblock. Finally, experienced paramedics on the scene identified diverse entry and exit wounds, likewise attesting to bullets from a variety of weapons.
Finally, Palestinian spokesmen confirmed that three gunmen had ambushed the roadblock.
The military experts DEBKAfile consultedstrongly doubt any sniper’s ability to achieve 14 direct hits with 25 M-14 bullets, however proficient. In any case, only Batman or Steve Austin could have flown overhead between two hills. That said, why is the Israeli media so intent on the lone sniper theory?
The answer to this has more to do with Israel’s endemic political infighting than the facts of the case. The rationale behind the tale “leaked” to the radio correspondent appears to be that if a single sniper with an outdated carbine can effect a massacre at a well-armed roadblock, there is something badly amiss with the way the chief of staff, lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, and the general tipped to succeed him, deputy chief of staff, Maj.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, are running war operations. It also shows up the Sharon government’s strategic thinking in a poor light. In the immediate term, the source of the leak may also have hoped to influence the government in its final choice of the next chief of staff, whose announcement is due in less than a week.
This wasn't the Texas Tower shooter of the 'sixties; it was three Palestinians with three different weapons in three different firing positions.
I just don't like anybody who thinks God favors one people over another...If you think God does (and not some book) then you are an an idiot...
"If fools hate knowledge"... then know this... God does not prefer one people over another because some book written by man says so...
You hate this "some book" which is the Bible. Okay, fine. But since you do appear to believe in God, what Holy Writ do you read from?
There was nothing "special" about the Jews as to why God has them as His chosen. It was about the promise made to Abraham. This is the lineage.
God could have just as easily chosen anyone else to fulfill the promise, but He didn't.
And what's up with the name calling?
Yes
(which you appear to detest)
No
Why'd you call me out of my name?
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