Two IDF soldiers were killed when two Arabs approached and fired at them near the northern Jordan Valley of Bekaot early this morning. Seven other soldiers were wounded in the attack, including one in serious condition. Another IDF force, of the Nachal HaHareidi, immediately arrived on the scene, and killed the two Arabs in an ensuing battle.
The two fallen soldiers are St.-Sgt. Ofir Sharabi, 21, of Givat Shmuel, who will be laid to rest tomorrow at noon in the Segulah cemetery in Petach Tikvah, and St.-Sgt. Yigal Lifshitz, 20, from Rishon LeTzion, who will be buried this evening.
IDF helicopters evacuated the wounded to nearby hospitals - Rambam in Haifa and HaEmek in Afula - while the gunfire raged around them. One of the terrorists attempted to escape, but the soldiers pursued and shot him.
The area was placed under high alert, and the residents were ordered to stay indoors. The affected area of the Jordan Valley highway was opened to traffic shortly after 8 AM, more than four hours after the incident began.
Ten Israelis have now lost their lives in the Jordan Valley in the non-stop Oslo War of Palestinian terrorism that began over two and a half years ago. The previous eight victims were:
* Sima Franko, 24, a teacher, and driver Yaakov Hatzav, 42, in a drive-by shooting in Sept. 2001;
* Social worker Sal'it Sheetrit, 28, in a similar attack two weeks later;
* Mother and daughter Miri and Yael Ochana, and St.-Sgt. Moshe Mekonen Majus, in February 2002, when terrorists infiltrated the community of Hamra;
* Lt. Tal Zemach, in March 2002 when when terrorists entered a Jordan Valley training base;
* Yafit Herenstein, 31, mother of two little girls, killed by a terrorist who infiltrated her hometown of Mechora in Aug. 2002.
A top Palestinian terrorist was killed this afternoon when an Israel Air Force helicopter fired a missile at his car in Gaza. Mahoud Zatma, a leading Islamic Jihad terrorist, was traveling in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. Several bystanders were hurt in the attack as well... Terrorists fired at an Israeli car near the northern Shomron community of Shaked yesterday afternoon; no one was hurt... IDF forces razed the home of a leading Hamas terrorist and bomb-builder, Abdullah Jamal of Ramallah. Jamal built the bomb that killed 15 people in the Sbarros restaurant almost two years ago, as well as many other lethal explosives.