An armed infiltrator from Jordan seriously wounded an Israel Defense Force soldier Monday night before he was killed by other soldiers in the Beit She’an Valley.
First Sgt. Doron Brauner, 22, from Kibbutz Kissufim in the Negev was reported in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Rambam Hospital in Haifa after undergoing lengthy surgery for chest wounds.
Brauner was a member of an IDF unit fired on from ambush near Kibbutz Neveh Ur close to the Jordanian border.
The slain gunman was found in possession of a Kalachnikov assault rifle and a Koran containing a pamphlet from Hamas, the Islamic extremist movement active in the Palestinian uprising.
The encounter was the latest in the growing number of armed infiltrations across the once quiescent Jordanian border.
Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, commander of the central region, visited the scene of the clash Tuesday. He warned Jewish settlers to be especially vigilant in view of the rise of Moslem fundamentalism in Jordan and King Hussein’s evident inability to control it.
The IDF said the latest incident started when a patrol came under fire from Jordan late Monday night. The soldiers returned the fire and resumed their patrol.
The intruder apparently crossed the border and breached the security fence after the IDF men passed. He waited in ambush for them in a palm grove.
Meanwhile, his tracks were discovered and nearby settlements were put on alert. Reinforcements were summoned to search the area.
As the patrol neared the palm grove, the intruder opened fire. He fired only a few shots before he was killed, but one of his shots hit Brauner.
TERRORIST BOAT INTEREPTED
The director of the local Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, who monitored the encounter on the security radio network, dispatched an ambulance for the wounded soldier. He was helicoptered to the hospital.
Brauner’s patrol was a unit of Nahal, a branch of the IDF that engages in agriculture when not performing military duties.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, Fatah Revolutionary Council, said two young gunmen killed Sunday night by the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army in the southern Lebanon security zone were members of the group.
According to Nidal’s group, they were on a mission to avenge the Israeli air force bombing last Friday of Revolutionary Council bases in southern Lebanon, in which the local commander was killed.
In other worrisome activity in Lebanon, residents of the port of Sidon reported Tuesday that a blood-stained fishing boat had been found washed ashore.
According to the reports, a boat with six terrorists on board had been intercepted at sea by an Israeli gunboat, which opened fire on the craft. Four of the six men aboard managed to reach shore. Two are missing.
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