An Israeli reserve soldier, Corp. Aharon Avidar, 29, of Ness Ziona, was shot to death this afternoon in downtown Ramallah, in a daring terrorist attack.
The soldier was on guard duty at the entrance to the government offices compound, in the center of town. The building is on one of the main streets in the Arab city. A huge iron gate blocks the entrance.
At approximately one p.m. local time, Avidar left his guard post to open the gate for a vehicle. After the vehicle entered the compound and the soldier was about to close the gate, an unidentified person approached from the street and fired one shot at the soldier at close range. He died on the way to the hospital.
The murderer escaped by losing himself among the large crowds in the center of town. Security forces immediately detained scores of local residents for initial questioning, and imposed a total curfew on the city and on the nearby Al-Amari refugee camp.
ESCALATION OF TERRORISTS ACTIVITIES
Avidar was the second victim of an Arab terrorist attack in the past 10 days. Early last week, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at an Israeli vehicle in Kalkilya, fatally burning the driver, David Pinhas. He died Thursday at a Petach Tikva hospital.
Both attacks reflect the recent escalation of terrorist activities in the territories and their increasing boldness. Last week, Arab terrorists fired on an Israeli bus enroute from Jerusalem to the Etzion bloc, wounding the driver and a passenger.
Security sources confirmed that one or two terrorist cells are now active in the territories, but until today they tended to underplay the significance of the attacks. Jewish settlers, on the other hand, have been claiming for some time that the security situation in the area was deteriorating.
The murder of the soldier in Ramallah today has given greater credibility to the claims of the settlers and their political lobby in the Knesset. The attacks came after a relatively long period of calm in the territories.
Following the Ramallah murder, leaders of the settlers said it was no longer a question whether they should react or how — but rather when.
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