By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jun 28, 2004
That the death toll in Sunday night’s bombing of a Gaza IDF outpost was not higher was the result of the LORD God’s divine protection, said one Israeli soldier from the scene of the attack.
"There were angels guarding us tonight as we stood guarding Israel. We can feel it,” the soldier told Arutz 7.
One soldier was killed and another five wounded in the blast, after Palestinian Arabs from the nearby town of Khan Yunis apparently managed to tunnel the approximately 350 yards to the outpost and planted a 150-kilogram bomb beneath it.
But the terrorists failed to plant their explosives under the outpost’s barracks, and instead detonated the charge beneath its parking lot, resulting in far fewer casualties than originally reported.
“Thank God, they seem to have dug [the tunnel] under where they thought our barracks were, but instead blew up the parking lot... It is really a miracle that they didn't succeed in blowing up the barracks,” the thankful soldier told his interviewer.
Tunnel bomb
A spokesman for Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades told reporters Sunday night that members of his group dug a tunnel 350 yards long from the Gaza town of Khan Yunis to an IDF outpost on the outskirts of the Jewish community of Kfar Darom and planted a massive bomb there.
The explosion caused much of the outpost to collapse into a pile of rubble.
One soldier was killed in the explosion. Another four sustained light injuries in the blast and a fifth was seriously wounded.
“Palestinian” forces attacked rescue crews with machine guns and mortar shells, hampering efforts to evacuate the wounded. By midnight, all casualties had been transported to Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center.
"This is a message to [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon that ... our fighters will continue the holy struggle until we uproot [the Jews] from our land [sic]," Ha’aretz quoted the spokesman as saying.
Divine protection
Initial reports from Gaza indicated as many as 30 soldiers had been wounded or killed in the enormous explosion.
That the casualty count was in fact much lower was attributed by at least one soldier to God’s divine protection.
"Thank God, [the terrorists] seem to have dug [the tunnel] under where they thought our barracks were, but instead blew up the parking lot - thank God everyone is accounted for. It is really a miracle that they didn't succeed in blowing up the barracks,” the soldier told Arutz 7’s Ezra HaLevi by telephone.
"There were angels guarding us tonight as we stood guarding Israel. We can feel it," he said.
Encouraging terror
Settler leaders and right-wing politicians quickly turned an accusatory glare at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon following the attack, blaming his “Gaza-first retreat plan” for encouraging terrorism.
"After this devastating attack, it is obvious that the dire warnings from the IDF Chief-of-Staff cannot be ignored:that withdrawal from [Gaza] leads to an invigorated terrorist infrastructure and renewed attacks,” a statement from the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza read.
"The way Sharon is making us run away with our tail beneath our legs encourages the terrorists to carry out such brazen attacks," said National Religious Party (NRP) MK Sha’ul Yahalom.
NRP chairman Effi Eitam later warned that terrorism would continue to chase after anyone who ran from it.
Likud MK Ehud Yatom called on Sharon to respond to the bombing by dropping his “disengagement” plan and instead deporting PLO chief Yasser Arafat.