Kissufim tank ambush

On September 5, 2002, during the Second Intifada, an Israeli Merkava II tank was driving along a dirt road near the Kissufim crossing following figures identified as "suspicious" when it was blown up by a 100-kilogram bomb buried under the road.[1] One soldier was killed instantly, while three soldiers were wounded. It took five hours to extricate the surviving soldiers from the burning tank.[1][2]

The tank commander was blown out of the turret hatch but landed unharmed.[1][3][4][5] It was the third deadly Palestinian assault on an Israeli tank in 2002.[5]

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the incident began on the previous night, when anti-tank missiles were fired at an army post.[2][5] Soldiers and the tank were sent to search for the rocket launchers, and militants detonated the bomb under the tank.[2][5]

An Arab umbrella group dominated by Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization claimed responsibility, stating, "This operation came to prove that Palestinian fighters are capable of reaching everywhere.[2][5]

Response

Israel responded to the ambush by launching a helicopter missile strike at a metal workshop or foundry being used as a bomb factory in Khan Younis.[2] The bomb-making factory was empty when it was targeted; there were no casualties.[2][6][7][8]

Israel's defense minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, stated that Israel would not return occupied areas of the Gaza Strip to the control of the Palestinian Authority, as it had pledged to do the previous month.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Sgt. Aviad Dotan". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 5 September 2002. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Anderson, John Ward (6 September 2002). "Israel Hits Suspected Bomb Shop In Gaza". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  3. ^ Tamara Traubman and Tsahar Rotem (September 5, 2002). "IDF officer killed in shooting attack in northern Gaza Strip". Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  4. ^ "Sgt. Aviad Dotan". September 5, 2002. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d e Traubman, Tamara (5 September 2002). "IAF Helicopters Strike in Gaza; 2 Soldiers Killed in Strip". Haaretz. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  6. ^ MacAskill, Ewen (6 September 2002). "Israelis foil big car bomb attack". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  7. ^ Collins, Dan (5 September 2002). "Israel Thwarts Massive Bombing". CBS.
  8. ^ "Israel prevents huge terror blast". St. Petersburg Times. AP. 6 September 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2015.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.