Each day and its own thwarted suicide attack. Yesterday\'s began when Israeli security officials, patrolling in the northern Shomron, encountered a Palestinian taxi approaching a temporary checkpoint they had just set up. The soldiers ordered the occupants to get out and lift their shirts to prove that they were not wearing explosives vests. Only one of them seemed to hesitate to do so, but with the prodding of the soldiers and facing their guns, he little by little opened his shirt, revealing the explosives he was in fact wearing on his body. The commander of the unit gave the would-be suicide terrorist precise instructions as to how to proceed, and finally, when it was verified without a doubt that he had no more explosives, he was taken into custody. Sappers were called in and defused the device without incident.



Also over the weekend, forces discovered and dismantled a ready-to-fire mortar launcher near Gush Katif in Israel’s southern Mediterranean coastal region. A stopwatch attached to the device was to serve as the launch mechanism.