Each day and its own suicide attack attempt. Yesterday\'s began when Israeli security officials patrolling in the northern Shomron encountered a Palestinian taxi approaching a checkpoint they had just set up. The soldiers ordered the occupants to get out and lift their shirts to prove 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 unit commander 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... Gunfire was directed today at an IDF position near Netzarim as a convoy was passing the area. One soldier was lightly wounded... Arabs fired at an IDF outpost on the Israeli-Egyptian border this morning; no one was hurt, and IDF soldiers returned fire...