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Written by Amy Teibel, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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JERUSALEM - An aide to Israel's public security minister was wounded by gunfire Friday as he toured an observation point overlooking the northern Gaza Strip with a group of Canadians.
Dozens of other people were at the site at the time but no one else was hurt, cabinet minister Avi Dichter said.
The deputy director of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Dr. Emile Hay, said Dichter's bureau chief, Matti Gil, was in stable condition with gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen and pelvis.
Dichter and Gil had taken a group of Canadians to the overlook near the town of Sderot to familiarize them with the situation in Israeli communities bordering Gaza, which have come under frequent Palestinian rocket fire.
A member of the group told Israel Radio that while Dichter was speaking, there was a 30-second volley of gunfire in which Gil was wounded.
Dichter said the entire attack lasted about 15 minutes, at a time when the overlook was "covered" with people, including 20 people in his group.
"The Canadian group behaved terrific, as if they are under fire in Canada every day," throwing themselves down on the ground immediately and crawling toward a military position, he said.
A tour guide with the group, Eddy Azran, said most of the Canadians were Jews and Christians from the Montreal area.
About 70 people were standing at the overlook when the shots came without warning, Azran said.
"Suddenly we heard a burst of fire and the bullets started hitting around us," Azran said by telephone. "There was confusion and everyone fell to the ground. We brought the tourists to a nearby army shelter with cement blocks. Then we heard the guy shout 'I'm hit' and I ran to get a first aide kit out of my car."
The Canada-Israel Committee issued a statement saying members of its board of directors were at the site when the shooting occurred.
"The CIC group, reflecting the resolve of all Canadians, is continuing with its tour of Sderot," board chairman Moshe Ronen said in the statement.
Ronen described the group as "shaken but with a much clearer understanding and appreciation for the awful situation facing these Israeli communities on a daily basis."
Several Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the attack, including the military wing of Gaza's Hamas movement, along with a militant offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, and two little-known radical Islamic groups inspired by al Qaida, the Army of the Nation
and Protectors of the Homeland.
Army Radio reported that tanks and bulldozers entered Gaza after the shooting.
Dichter told Israeli Army Radio he did not think the shots were aimed at him specifically, and that Israeli troops immediately returned fire.
Army Radio reported that tanks and bulldozers entered Gaza after the shooting.
The attack was the second in recent weeks in which a Dichter aide has been hurt in an attack. In late February, a bodyguard was lightly wounded in a rocket assault on southern Israel as he prepared for the minister to visit.
Gaza militants have bombarded Israeli border communities with crude rockets since late 2001, killing 13 people, disrupting daily life and provoking sometimes harsh Israeli retaliation. With Egyptian mediation, however, there has been a lull in violence in recent weeks.
Separately, Gaza militants on Friday opened fire on farmers working in the fields of a communal farm, or kibbutz, near northern Gaza, Ein Hashlosha. No one was hurt.
Three months ago, an Ecuadorian volunteer at the kibbutz was killed by Palestinian sniper fire.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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