Israel was reeling this week after the death of the military officer in charge of the West Bank.
Maj. Gen. Nechemia Tamari, the head of the Israel Defense Force’s Central Command, died along with three other officers in a helicopter crash early Wednesday.
Tamari was the highest-ranking officer to die in the line of duty in nearly a dozen years.
As commander of the central sector of Israel, which includes the West Bank, Tamari would have been in charge of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Jericho, as stipulated in the Palestinian self-rule accord signed last September in Washington.
The Dec. 13 deadline for the start of the Withdrawal was missed because of a deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Tamari, however, indicated that the withdrawal could be implemented in a brief period of time.
“Jericho is not complicated in terms of taking out forces,” he was reported to have said. “We can do it in a number of days.”
Tamari, 45, had flown north Wednesday to be with troops searching the area near the city of Beit She’an, near the Jordanian border, for an infiltrator who had crossed into Israel during the night.
Tamari and the three officers were killed as their helicopter was returning to command headquarters north of Jerusalem.
Also killed were Tamari’s aide, Maj. Ofer Kaufman, and two air force captains serving as helicopter pilots, Ofri Yaelli and Assaf Asher.
The army ruled out sabotage, saying the crash was an accident caused by bad weather.
As the helicopter was approaching its base, the pilots had radioed the control tower to ask about the weather.
“We can’t see a thing here,” the tower replied.
But the pilots, who were familiar with the area around the helipad, decided to land.
Less than 700 feet from the landing pad, the helicopter flew into a high- tension wire, which was invisible in the thick mist.
The helicopter caught fire and crashed, killing all four passengers instantly.
The IDF was in a state of mourning Wednesday upon hearing of the loss of four of their comrades.
Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Gur, a longtime friend of Tamari’s, shaken and tearful, called the general “one of the boldest and smartest fighters” he had ever known.
Tamari, who reportedly was a candidate for the position of army chief of staff, had served in the IDF for 28 years. He fought in the Israeli-Arab wars of 1967 and 1973 as well as in the war in Lebanon.
He was the highest-ranking officer to be killed in the line of duty since June 1982, when Maj. Gen. Yekutiel Adam died during the invasion of Lebanon.
After the helicopter crash, IDF forces located the infiltrator – an unarmed civilian who was found wandering in the Beit She’an Valley.
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