Nine Israeli soldiers were injured today when the two vehicles in which they were traveling in the Jordan valley hit mines planted by Palestinian terrorists, an army spokesman said. The injured were quickly evacuated by helicopter. The incident occured just north of the Argaman kibbutz, about a mile west of the Jordan River. According to the army spokesman, the mines had been planted by terrorists whose tracks led back across the Jordanian border.
Today’s incident was the first since 1976 in which there were Israeli casualties along the Jordan River as a result of terrorist mine-planting actions. Last April, terrorists fired Katyusha rockets and shells into Israel from Jordan. Last year, three terrorists who infiltrated across the border from Jordan in the Arava valley north of Eilat were killed in a clash with an Israeli army patrol.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
