In Beit She'an this afternoon, two terrorists opened fire in three different locations in and around the Likud Party headquarters, killing five Jews and wounding some 30, including ten seriously. Almost all the victims were hit in Likud Party headquarters as elections for the party's leader were being held. Beit She'an is situated in the northern Jordan Valley, 15 miles south of the Kinneret Sea.
The Palestinian murderers, one of whom was reportedly wearing an explosives vest designed for a suicide attack, were killed when a heroic young man - Border Guard policeman Eran David, 28 - returned precise fire. "He was amazingly courageous," an eyewitness said. "He stood openly to face the terrorists, and fired single shots - not a burst of fire - and picked them off one by one."
Eran David himself recounted that when he heard the gunfire, he ran up to his home to get his weapon, and then ran out to try to put a stop to the carnage: "I saw one terrorist, and got closer to him, and took him down [i.e., shot and killed him]... I didn't know that there was another terrorist, but then I heard more shooting. I saw the shooter, got closer to him, and then took him down as well... I simply did what I was taught, and I would in fact like to thank my teacher Yaakov Reuven... I'm only sorry I didn't get there more quickly..."
Among the wounded are three sons of MK and ex-Foreign Minister David Levy, including Shimon, 40, in serious condition. The two others were lightly wounded: Jackie, 43, who is running for mayor of Beit She'an, and Uri, 37, who later said: "I saw these two guys shooting, and then calmly and coldly making sure their victims were dead. If I had a gun, I certainly could have killed them - they were so close, maybe ten meters. Then my eyes caught the eyes of one of them, and I saw that he wanted to do to me what he did to the others - but his magazine had run out of bullets. I started yelling to everyone to run..."
The Palestinian murderers, one of whom was reportedly wearing an explosives vest designed for a suicide attack, were killed when a heroic young man - Border Guard policeman Eran David, 28 - returned precise fire. "He was amazingly courageous," an eyewitness said. "He stood openly to face the terrorists, and fired single shots - not a burst of fire - and picked them off one by one."
Eran David himself recounted that when he heard the gunfire, he ran up to his home to get his weapon, and then ran out to try to put a stop to the carnage: "I saw one terrorist, and got closer to him, and took him down [i.e., shot and killed him]... I didn't know that there was another terrorist, but then I heard more shooting. I saw the shooter, got closer to him, and then took him down as well... I simply did what I was taught, and I would in fact like to thank my teacher Yaakov Reuven... I'm only sorry I didn't get there more quickly..."
Among the wounded are three sons of MK and ex-Foreign Minister David Levy, including Shimon, 40, in serious condition. The two others were lightly wounded: Jackie, 43, who is running for mayor of Beit She'an, and Uri, 37, who later said: "I saw these two guys shooting, and then calmly and coldly making sure their victims were dead. If I had a gun, I certainly could have killed them - they were so close, maybe ten meters. Then my eyes caught the eyes of one of them, and I saw that he wanted to do to me what he did to the others - but his magazine had run out of bullets. I started yelling to everyone to run..."