The Nazareth District Court has overturned a decision awarding compensation to the family of an Arab woman killed in an August, 1992 battle between undercover IDF agents and Arab terrorists. The woman was a "partially-innocent bystander," who warned the terrorists of the soldiers' attempt to enter the building.
The 8-hour battle claimed the life of IDF fighter Eli Avram, the commander of the undercover unit. The court ruled that a decision by the Nazareth Magistrates Court in May 2005 deeming the battle a "police operation" was in error. Citizens killed in the course of police operations are eligible for compensation.
Intelligence information led an undercover IDF unit to a building in Jenin in which leaders of the Black Panther terrorist cell were hiding out. The drawn-out battle involved the removal of Arab non-combatants from the building in which the armed terrorists were holed up. In the exchanges of fire, a woman named Maha Hassan Alwana was killed.
The Magistrates Court ruled that though the operation in general was a battle with terrorists, the brief respite in which the innocent citizens were removed from the building, and in which the woman was killed, was nothing more than a police operation.
However, the higher District Court ruled that such a determination was "artificial and mistaken," according to NFC correspondent Ruti Avraham. The entire incident was rather one long battle with terrorists, and the woman's family is therefore not eligible for state compensation.
"A hiatus of several minutes during a battle that took place all night long does not turn it into a 'police operation,'" the judges wrote. "This was an intense series of consecutive and dynamic events, in which a difficult battle was taking place. There was no cease-fire with the intervention of a third-party, in which positions are defined with rules, etc.... There were rather very heavy exchanges of fire for many long hours... The forces were in danger even during the hiatus; the fact that they called over a megaphone for the non-combatants to come out does not suddenly turn the Palestinians into the protectorates of the soldiers who did not stop combat for a moment and were in perpetual danger... Such a short recess during such a long battle cannot suddenly become a 'police operation.' This was a battle against terrorism carried out in life-threatening conditions... Such an operation grants the State an exemption [from paying compensation]..."
The Dead Woman Warned the Terrorists
The woman herself was actually a partial combatant, the judges quoted the soldiers as testifying: "Our intention was to enter the building quietly through an open [window]. The woman saw us [the soldiers], and instead of sitting quietly, she yelled and warned the wanted terrorists that they should run away. We therefore had to encircle the whole building, or else they would have run away and continued to kill more citizens."
Despite this, the judges expressed their regret that according to law, the woman's family must not be awarded compensation from the State: "It is true that a tragedy befell the family and her small daughters, but [the law does not grant them State compensation]. It could very well be that the solution lies in another framework or by legislation that might grant compensation in such cases..."