A lone terrorist, who sailed almost silently over the Lebanon border in a motorized hang-glider, killed six Israeli soldiers and wounded seven near Kiryat Shemona in the upper Galilee Wednesday night before he was shot to death by one of the soldiers he had wounded.
Some time later, an Israel Defense Force patrol killed a second terrorist whose glider had come down in southern Lebanon just short of the Israel border. There were no Israeli casualties in that encounter.
The attack, the most serious terrorist infiltration of Israel in many years, pierced Israel’s rigorous defenses around the northern border.
The IDF was put on emergency alert, with the entire area sealed off Residents of Kiryat Shemona, three miles west of the attack, were ordered to remain in their homes for the rest of the Wednesday night and well into the morning But schools in the town opened shortly before noon Thursday.
The precautions were taken because the red-and-white-painted glider, a type used for sport, was capable of carrying two persons, and it was believed a second, unaccounted terrorist might also have landed But searches into the morning found no one.
LANDED EAST OF KIRYAT SHEMONA
The gliders are believed to have been launched from high ground in southern Lebanon, north of Israel’s security zone there According to military sources, the terrorist landed his glider east of Kiryat Shemona at about 10 p.m. local time Wednesday and opened fire at a passing IDF car, killing the officer who was driving.
He then entered a nearby IDF camp, spraying one tent with machine-gun bullets and throwing hand grenades. Five soldiers in the tent were killed and seven were wounded. One of the men, shot in the leg, killed the terrorist.
The slain Israeli soldiers were identified as Lt. Jacki Beyer of Holon; Lt. Leron Pnimi of Avihayil; Sgt Daniel Miller of Raanana; Cpl. Nir Hazon of Petach Tikva; Cpl. Guy Netanel of Jerusalem; and Cpl. Binyamin Bassekman of Holon. The seven wounded soldiers were rushed by helicopter to hospitals in Safed and Haifa.
Premier Yitzhak Shamir summoned the Inner Cabinet into urgent session Thursday morning to be briefed on the attack and consider possible retaliatory measures. The Inner Cabinet, consisting of five Labor Party and five Likud ministers, is Israel’s top policy-making body.
Shamir visited the area of the attack later in the day, following visits by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Shomron and other senior IDF officers.
PRO-SYRIAN TERROR GROUP TAKES CREDIT
In Beirut, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Syrian terrorist group headed by Ahmed Jabreel, claimed credit for the operation.
It said the attack was “dedicated to Ariel Sharon, who wiped out many Arab villages in retaliatory operations carried out on Oct. 15, 1983 in northern Galilee.” Sharon, who is minister of commerce and industry, was defense minister during the Lebanon war.
Shomron told IDF radio Thursday that the attack by a “single intruder” was clearly a suicide mission, because the infiltrator had no means of escape.
Shomron said that Palestinian terrorists are constantly seeking new ways to infiltrate Israel. They have tried small boats, small aircraft or small groups by land under cover of night. Most of these attempts failed and any damage was slight, Shomron said. But he warned it is impossible to seal off the country completely.
The last previous attempts to infiltrate Israel by air occurred in 1981 and 1982. In the first, a terrorist surrendered after landing his glider in the Galilee. A year later, two terrorists were killed when their hot air balloon was shot down.
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