Published 02:01 25.08.11
Gazans doubt responsibility of Popular Resistance Committees and their military wing; Egypt newspaper identifies three of attack planners as Egyptians.
By Amira Hass
It has been one week since the terror attacks near Eilat, and there is no sign of the traditional mourners' tents for the relatives of militants killed by the Israel Defense Forces, or indeed any reports of Gazan families who are grieving as a result of IDF actions near the Egyptian border last Thursday. Nor were there reports of families demanding the return of their loved ones' bodies for burial. A longtime social activist told Haaretz that even in the event that families were instructed to conceal their grief, news like that is difficult to hide in the Strip.
The absence of mourners' tents reinforces the general sense in the Strip that the perpetrators of the attack were not from Gaza, contrary to Israeli defense establishment claims. Gazans also doubt that members of the Popular Resistance Committees and their military wing (the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades ) were behind the attack. Support for this view can be seen in a report on Monday by the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, according to which Egyptian security forces had identified three of the planners as Egyptians. A PRC spokesman responded to the report by announcing that the organization "praised" the attack but had not planned it.
Within hours after the attack, at about 5 P.M. Thursday, two IDF missiles killed PRC chief Kamal al-Nirab and three members of its military wing, who were in one of the men's homes in the Rafah refugee camp. The 2-year-old son of the homeowner also died in the missile strike.
Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral Friday morning of the five victims. A relative of Nirab's told Haaretz that there is a sense that people in Rafah want revenge.
Nirab was popular in the area less because of his military prowess than due to a role he embraced in the past few years, that of mediator and conflict-solver - within families and between Fatah and Hamas
Judging from conversations with a few people, the rest of the Strip is tending against escalation. "In the north people see Iron Dome in action," a man from the area of Beit Lahiya said, referring to the antimissile system protecting Israeli communities adjacent to Gaza. "The military ineffectiveness of our rockets was never so apparent to people as it is now," he added.
Palestinian media outlets reported that three children were killed in Israeli retaliatory air strikes. But one of them, a 13-year-old boy, actually died after being hit by a rocket or missile fired by Palestinian militants north of the Shati refugee camp on Friday. Such incidents, when rockets launched from the Strip fall in Gazan territory, causing injuries and damage, are not widely reported but are not rare.
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Israel Defense Forces investigation reveals Golani Brigade soldier, Staff Sgt. Moshe Naftali, killed by friendly fire in confrontation with terrorist in August 18 attack.
By Anshel Pfeffer
An Israel Defense Forces investigation into the terrorist attacks on Israel's south on August 18, has revealed that Golani Brigade soldier, Staff Sgt. Moshe Naftali, who died in the attack, was killed by friendly fire.
Golani Brigade commander, Colonel Ofek Buchris, met Friday with the relatives of Staff Naftali, aged 22, to tell them that the preliminary findings of the IDF investigation lead to the conclusion that Naftali was killed by one friendly fire from a fellow soldier.
According to the investigation, four soldiers, including Naftali, who were first to arrive on the scene of the attack, alighted from their vehicle together in order to attack one of the terrorists. One of Naftali's fellow soldiers fired at the terrorist, and Naftali was hit by friendly fire.
"The results of the investigation show that the forces that dealt with the attack acted professionally and with determination, they brought a quick end to the incident and assassinated the terrorists," The IDF spokesman said.
"Staff Sgt. Moshe Naftali led his soldiers with courage in the face of terrorists and in the coming days the investigation will continue in order to learn lessons to evade a similar situation in the future."
Staff Sgt. Naftali was one of five people killed in the terror attacks in Israel's south on August 18. The remaining four victims are Yosef Levi, aged 52, from Holon; Sisters Flora Gez and Shula Karlitzky, aged 52 and 54 respectively, and their husbands, Moshe, aged 53 and Dov, aged 58. The two couples lived in Kfar Saba and were on their way to a vacation in Eilat when their car was attacked.
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