By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jul 02, 2004
Five Palestinian Arabs on their way Thursday to inflict pain and death on Jews near the Gaza Strip community of Netzarim instead found themselves on the receiving end of Israeli army rifles.
The five men were killed during a heated gun battle that reportedly lasted for a number of hours.
At least one other terrorist was wounded and three of his comrades were arrested.
Earlier, Israeli choppers fired two missiles into a crowd of Arabs who were planting a bomb meant for another group of IDF soldiers. Seven people were reportedly wounded in that attack.
And IDF troops raided Jericho, arresting tens of terrorist suspects who had taken refuge in the Palestinian Authority-controlled town.
Vying for victory
The efforts to kill Israelis have accelerated since the Sharon government expressed its intention to uproot or push Gaza's 8000 Jews out of the Strip.
Terror groups in Gaza have vowed that they will up the attacks on the IDF as well as on civilians in the area in order to "prove" that it is their violence that has successfully driven out the Jews.
A majority of "Palestinians" polled in recent weeks have expressed the conviction that Israel's decision to leave Gaza has vindicated their comrades' tactics of terror.
Who is God?
Muslim Arabs, who comprise the vast majority of the "Palestinians," attribute this Israeli withdrawal - like all those carried out by Israeli governments in the past 15 years - to Allah's supremacy over Israel's God.
According to numerous Muslim clerics throughout the Middle East, the land-for-peace process has only served to underscore that, in the end, the Islamic Arab world will gain control of all the land known today as the State of Israel.
Western leaders, and Israel's government, appear unwilling to accept that the Arabs' motivation is Islam-driven, insisting that the Israeli-Arab conflict is not a war between religions.
Meanwhile, in another setback for the "Palestinians" the IDF carried out an unprecedented raid into Jericho earlier Thursday, arresting tens of terrorists who have taken refuge in that town.
The Israeli military said Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority has rejected numerous demands by Israel that the terror suspects be handed over.