Israelis murdered by Palestinian gunmen

In hot pursuit of Palestinian terrorists

The two men, both from Beersheba, were employed by the Israeli Dor Energy company to guard the Nahal Oz fuel terminal. DEBKAfile’s military sources report they were shot dead in their cars by 4 Palestinian gunmen, who breached the border fence on April 9 in a well-planned raid under cover of heavy mortar and rocket fire at Nahal and Alumim kibbutzim. Israeli forces returned the fire killing two of the assailants. The other two fled into Gaza - one was later killed, the second injured - as Israeli tanks drove into the territory in hot pursuit with air support.

Israeli civilians were told to stay indoors for several hours as the heavy fire continued. Security forces were posted at the entrances to all the region’s towns and villages. Goods traffic into the Gaza Strip was halted until further notice.

Israeli spokesmen said Hamas, as the governing authority of the Gaza Strip, is held responsible for the attack on the terminal, through which 4 million liters of fuel, petrol and heavy oil pass every week from Israel to Gaza. Hamas and Palestinian leaders have no cause to complain about an Israeli blockade, particularly when they destroy their own energy lifeline.

Our military sources report that, while Israel’s civil defense exercise was drilling a terrorist sea landing on Tel Aviv, the Gaza terrorists broke through the border fence to Israel and hit an important facility. They displayed a capability to combine rocket fire with a direct ground assault on a secure Israeli location. This is a far cry from the scenarios practiced in Israel's national civil defense exercise.

Military experts warn that Palestinian terror planners are no longer waiting for Israel to finally launch its long-deferred major military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They have run ahead with their own scenario, a war of attrition made up of small-scale hit-and-run sorties synchronized with missile and rocket attacks on the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon and strategic installations, like the Nahal Oz fuel terminal. Israel forces will have to re-configure their tactics to cope with this form of warfare.