Two Paratroopers Brigades soldiers who were killed last night in a battle with terrorists outside Shechem were buried this afternoon. Lt. Amir Ben-Aryeh of Maccabim-Reut, near Modiin, and St.-Sgt. Idan Suzin of Kiryat Tivon, both 21, were killed when terrorists attacked a building under IDF control atop Shechem shortly before midnight. The guard was killed first, and Lt. Ben-Aryeh was mortally wounded in the ensuing battle with the other soldiers. Two other soldiers were wounded, one "moderately," and the two terrorists were killed. The terrorists managed to cut the fence around the building, and came to within a meter of the structure. The IDF says that the soldiers' alertness prevented the terrorists from carrying out their plan of killing the entire outpost force. Ben-Aryeh was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Hadid, and Suzin - in Kiryat Tivon.



A friend of Amir Ben-Aryeh said that he was "head and shoulders above the others, in more than one sense. He was tall, and also towered above others in terms of his personality. He had natural leadership qualities, everyone liked him, and he had a real love of the Land and the people." He is survived by his parents and an older brother. Idan Suzin, the middle of three sons, had planned to participate today in a memorial ceremony for his good friend Lee Nachman Akunis, a soldier who fell one year ago at the hands of an Arab sniper near Ramallah; Idan kept in close contact with that family.