The IDF's 11-hour siege on an 8-story building in Hevron finally ended this afternoon with the killing of two Hamas terrorists - including, apparently, the head of Hamas in the city, Ahmed Bader.
The story began around 4:00 this morning when army forces encircled the building near the Islamic University in Hevron, in an attempt to catch several terrorists of the murderous Hawasme clan of Hamas. The army had received intelligence information that the Hawasme clan was in the midst of planning a major terror attack. The Hawasmes have already produced four suicide terrorists.
The Israeli forces began evacuating other residents of the building, but the terrorists opened fire, thus setting off several hours of heavy but intermittent shooting, including Israeli tank fire. A stale-mate then ensued, and it was not clear whether more residents remained trapped inside with the terrorists. One wounded Arab, assumed to be one of the terrorists, exited the building and was hospitalized.
The army then faced the choice of whether to comb the entire building, floor by floor and room by room, thus endangering the soldiers - or to destroy the entire building. Two soldiers were killed last week in two similar attempts to arrest wanted murderous terrorists; one leading terrorist was killed and another was arrested in these incidents.
Shortly before 3 PM, the army made its move: The forces burst into the building, and two terrorists were killed. It is not yet clear if one or both were killed before or after the soldiers burst in, nor how they met their demise. Some reports state that one terrorist was killed by a tank shell. The soldiers then began combing the building for other terrorists.
It will be recalled that then-Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said last year that the IDF chose to endanger its own soldiers, as opposed to "innocent" PA residents, during the battles against the terrorist strongholds in Jenin in the spring of 2002. Israel lost 23 soldiers in the Jenin battles, including 13 in one ambush. Then-MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said afterwards that Israel must not endanger IDF soldiers by taking "the world's double standard of ethics into account merely so that we will look better in the media... The welfare of our soldiers stands above the world's criticism of us, and we must not abandon our soldiers because of the world's double standard."
The story began around 4:00 this morning when army forces encircled the building near the Islamic University in Hevron, in an attempt to catch several terrorists of the murderous Hawasme clan of Hamas. The army had received intelligence information that the Hawasme clan was in the midst of planning a major terror attack. The Hawasmes have already produced four suicide terrorists.
The Israeli forces began evacuating other residents of the building, but the terrorists opened fire, thus setting off several hours of heavy but intermittent shooting, including Israeli tank fire. A stale-mate then ensued, and it was not clear whether more residents remained trapped inside with the terrorists. One wounded Arab, assumed to be one of the terrorists, exited the building and was hospitalized.
The army then faced the choice of whether to comb the entire building, floor by floor and room by room, thus endangering the soldiers - or to destroy the entire building. Two soldiers were killed last week in two similar attempts to arrest wanted murderous terrorists; one leading terrorist was killed and another was arrested in these incidents.
Shortly before 3 PM, the army made its move: The forces burst into the building, and two terrorists were killed. It is not yet clear if one or both were killed before or after the soldiers burst in, nor how they met their demise. Some reports state that one terrorist was killed by a tank shell. The soldiers then began combing the building for other terrorists.
It will be recalled that then-Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said last year that the IDF chose to endanger its own soldiers, as opposed to "innocent" PA residents, during the battles against the terrorist strongholds in Jenin in the spring of 2002. Israel lost 23 soldiers in the Jenin battles, including 13 in one ambush. Then-MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said afterwards that Israel must not endanger IDF soldiers by taking "the world's double standard of ethics into account merely so that we will look better in the media... The welfare of our soldiers stands above the world's criticism of us, and we must not abandon our soldiers because of the world's double standard."