Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Soldiers thwart terror attack at checkpoint

If you need to be reminded why Israel has those oh-so-inconvenient checkpoints, read this from Ynet News, 13/10/08, by Efrat Weiss:

Soldiers at Hawara checkpoint in Nablus shoot, wound Palestinian [Arab] after finding three explosive device on his person

Soldiers thwarted a potential terror attack on Israeli soil Monday evening, when they shot and wounded a Palestinian [Arab] attempting to smuggle three improvised explosive devices through the Hawara checkpoint in Nablus.

The Palestinian [Arab] man arrived at the checkpoint as it was manned by forces from the military police and the Golani infantry brigade. Upon arousing the soldiers' suspicion, who open searching his possessions found three explosives.

According to the IDF, he attempted to escape by trying to get into a nearby get-away vehicle, but was shot by one of the soldiers before he could make it to the car. He was then taken to the hospital in Nablus, apparently not in serious condition.

IDF sappers were called to the area and detonated the bombs in a controlled manner.

In recent months, a number of attacks have been foiled at this same checkpoint. A dozen pipe bombs were discovered in two incidents this month. Earlier, Palestinian with six pipe bombs was caught in June, while in May a Palestinian was killed carrying four pipe bombs.

More recently, Palestinian [Arab]s have taken to attacking soldiers at the checkpoint. In September, soldiers had to deal with stabbing attempts, as well as an incident in which a Palestinian [Arab] woman threw acid in a soldier's face, almost blinding him.

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