The IDF issued a statement that checkpoints would remain closed from 12:01 AM Sunday until the end of the holiday. PA Arabs in need of humanitarian aid, as well as those working as doctors, medics, lawyers, NGO workers and others, will be allowed to pass freely after receiving special clearance from the IDF Civil Administration. Other exceptions involve Gaza’s Christian Arabs, who will be allowed into Israel for the Christian holidays, and 1,000 PA Arabs employed by northern region Israeli cucumber and almond farmers.
Israel has been particularly wary of holiday attacks since the 2002 Park Hotel bombing during a large Pesach seder in the seaside town of Netanya. Thirty people were murdered and 140 wounded in the attack, which resulted
in the launch of Operation Defensive Shield.
Two IDF soldiers were wounded on Friday night during counter-terrorism actions in the Shomron. One soldier was wounded when terrorists threw a pipe-bomb at his unit in Shechem; the Arabs also fired and threw a grenade at the forces. South of Jenin, a soldier was taken to the hospital suffering from smoke inhalation after Arabs hurled at Molotov at him. IDF forces were attacked elsewhere as well, but no one was hurt.
IDF forces arrested several wanted terrorists in
Rock Attacks
Two Israeli Jews traveling north of Jerusalem Saturday night were wounded by an Arab mob. The group of Arabs ambushed their car, surrounding it and hurling rocks and boulders at the windows.
Earlier Saturday another similar attack took place in Gush Etzion. There were no injuries reported in that attack.
On Friday, one of 300 PA Arabs and Israeli leftists, at a weekly demonstration against the partition wall near the Arab
Gaza Violence
A new Islamic group calling itself the “Swords of Righteousness” launched a string of attacks on Gaza businesses deemed un-Islamic. The group claimed responsibility for a bomb set off at an Internet cafe in northern Gaza on Saturday morning. Pharmacies have also been targeted, under the claim that illicit drugs were being sold there.
A Salafi (Wahabbi) Sheikh, Adnan Manasra, was shot to death Friday night and a relative of his injured. Hamas has harshly criticized Manasra’s stream of Islam, which is strongly critical of using politics to advance Jihad.
Hamas men also attacked a group of armed Fatah terrorists in northern Gaza, opening fire and wounding several of them. The seven-year-old child of a Hamas terrorist was killed Friday while playing with one of his father’s hand-grenades.
Bedouin Rapist Caught
Bedouin Arab Iyad Agbur, 19, of the Negev town of Rahat, was indicted on two counts of rape Friday.
Agbur raped two young girls inside the Jewish town of Arad, where he was employed. He carried out the first rape in 2005 together with a friend in the town’s market, targeting a 17-year-old girl. His second victim was 11, and was attacked while just minutes from her home, on the way home from school. Agbur was located by police because he stole the 11-year-old’s cellular phone after the second attack.
