Middle East: Three Israeli soldiers, two of them women, were killed and two injured in a pre-dawn attack yesterday by a Hamas gunman who infiltrated the isolated settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip and then opened fire in an army base located there.
The gunman, who cut through the security fence that surrounds the settlement, was shot dead by troops. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was a joint operation.
Armed with a Kalazhnikov assault rifle and hand-grenades, the gunman managed to infiltrate the highly-guarded settlement under the cover of darkness and thick fog. He then made it to the barracks where the soldiers were sleeping and opened fire, killing the two female soldiers. He then shot dead a male soldier, Staff Sgt Alon Avrahami (20) who ran to the scene. Another gunman, from Islamic Jihad, fled the scene after failing to penetrate Netzarim. Hamas identified the dead man as Samir Fouda (21) from the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The two groups said the attack was a response to Israeli "crimes" - a reference to a wave of aerial strikes in Gaza earlier this week in which at least 12 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, were killed.
The female soldiers serving at Netzarim engage in lookout work. The two women soldiers killed were Sgt Adi Osman (19) and Sgt Sarit Shneor, also 19. The Osman family, which expressed anger yesterday that women soldiers in Netzarim had their guns taken away from them a month ago for budgetary reasons, also questioned the army's presence in the settlement.
The attack revived calls by left-wing politicians for the evacuation of settlements in Gaza, where some 6,000 settlers live alongside a population of well over one million Palestinians.
But government officials blamed Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Doctors in Gaza reported yesterday that an 11-year-old Palestinian boy died after he was injured by Israeli fire. The army said it was not aware of shooting in the area where the boy was hit. In northern Gaza, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who approached the fence of a settlement in the area.