Egyptian border guards reportedly moved to close the border with the Gaza Strip this morning, forming a human shield and blocking the movement of palestinians into Egypt. But this is too little, too late, with news that Hamas and other terrorist organizations already sent terrorists into the Sinai peninsula over the last two days, with the goal of sending them back into Israel to commit attacks.
Speaking of terror attacks, more details have emerged regarding last night’s terror attack in Kfar Etzion, which show the courage of the students there. After the students were attacked, they fought back, and one counselor managed to grab the gun from one of the two terrorists and kill them. Meanwhile, the Border Guard Officer who was murdered in the Shoafat terrorist attack was 20-year-old Lance Corporal Rami Zoari.
This morning, the IAF sent 4 terrorists who were planning a terror attack to meet their 72 raisins. One of the terrorists had been coordinating Qassam rocket fire on Sderot and was involved in attacks in the Rafah area. For their part, palestinian terrorists opened fire and hurled explosive devices at IDF soldiers operating in Qabatiya.
In other news, Israel may allow the PA to control the Gaza crossings, and the UN still can’t reach a compromise statement on the current crisis.
Updates (Israel time)
10:03AM: An LGF reader has brought to my attention some unbelieveable bias from the AFP: this headline to describe the terror attack in Kfar Etzion, in which 2 terrorists infiltrated the yeshiva and started stabbing students.
Officials: 2 Palestinians Die In W Bank Settlement Attack
Do you see what we are dealing with here? Besides terrorism, we have a mainstream media actively pursing the palestinian narrative.
11:00AM: Kfar Etzion, the scene of the yeshiva terror attack, has a history of Arab violence.
On May 12, 1948, two days before the proclamation of the State of Israel, thousands of Arabs and Arab Legionnaires attacked the Etzion Bloc. The fighting went on for three long days, and 30 defenders were killed. On Friday, the day that the state was proclaimed, they could no longer hold out. They surrendered. In the massacre of Kfar Etzion, the Arabs murdered 127 men and women. Bodies lay in the fields for a year-and-a-half, until Transjordan allowed Israel to retrieve the corpses and bury them at Mount Herzl. The remainder were taken prisoner to Transjordan. The four kibbutzim were totally destroyed. Two hundred and forty settlers, Haganah and Palmah fighters were killed at the Etzion Bloc during five-and-a-half months of war.
12:30PM: Here’s the text of yesterday’s UNHRC resolution:
In a resolution (A/HRC/S-6/L.1) on the human rights violations emanating from Israeli military attacks and incursions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip , adopted by a roll-call vote of 30 in favour, 1 against, and 15 abstentions, the Council expresses grave concern at the Israeli repeated military attacks carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, which resulted in loss of lives and injuries among Palestinian civilians, including women and children; and calls for urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying Power, Israel, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including the series of incessant and repeated Israeli military attacks and incursions therein and the siege of the occupied Gaza Strip. The Council demands that the occupying Power, Israel, lift immediately the siege it has imposed on the occupied Gaza Strip, restore continued supply of fuel, food and medicine and reopen the border crossings; calls for immediate protection of the Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in compliance with human rights law and international humanitarian law; and urges all concerned parties to respect the rules of human rights law and international humanitarian law and to refrain from violence against the civilian population. The Council also requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to report to the Council, at its next session, on the progress made in the implementation of this resolution.
Leaving aside the absence of any mention of the palestinian terrorism that triggered the latest crisis, notice how the resolution mentions the words “occupied Gaza Strip” four times. The problem is that the Gaza Strip is not occupied, at least not by Israel. There’s that little matter of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, as well as Hamas’ complete takeover.
12:37PM: Palestinians have reportedly thrown rocks at Egyptian police, in a display of anger at the Egyptian moves to seal the border. The police have responded by firing in the air.
12:40PM: The Border Policewoman injured in the Shoafat attack last night has spoken about what happened:
Public Defense Minister Avi Dichter paid a visit Friday to the bedside of the Border Police officer who was injured in the terror attack last night. The officer, Shoshana Samendoyov, who is in serious condition at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital, told Dichter what she remembered of the attack.
“I tried to cock my gun, then they shot at me and I fainted,” she said. “I got up after a few minutes and cocked the gun. I was in great pain, I couldn’t move. I called the Border Police officer who was next to me and saw that he wasn’t responding.”
Samendoyov said she temporarily lost her hearing “because of the blast” that had occurred. “I picked up the phone and told the officer at the command room that we had been fired upon and that we need help. At the same time, I cocked the weapon and started firing at a car I saw blurredly. I lost so much blood that I fainted again. I remember crawling towards the barrier and then I saw a jeep of ours that had started taking charge of the situation.”
1:10PM: Palestinian sources are saying that the Kfar Etzion terrorists are Hamas men out of Israeli jail.
1:18PM: Also good coverage from Israel Matzav.
3:20PM: More on the Kfar Etzion terrorists:
The two armed Palestinians who infiltrated a yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Kfar Etzion on Thursday night, wounding three civilians, were recently released from an Israeli prison after serving time for criminal violations, Palestinian and Israeli security officials said Friday.
The two terrorists Palestinians, later identified as Mohammad and Mahmoud Samarna, relatives from a West Bank village near Hebron, were freed several days ago.
3:25PM: Here we go again: AP reports that palestinians have rushed into Egypt again after knocking over the new section of the Gaza border wall.
According to Ynet, Hamas terrorists used a bulldozer in their attempts to open up a new passage, with gunfire being heard “as thousands of palestinian onlookers cheered on the militants as they rammed the chain-link and barbed-wire fence.”
3:40PM: Is is just me, or have the Egyptians recruited Genghis Khan to be a riot policeman?
3:50PM: I am signing off for the Jewish Sabbath. Posting to resume Saturday evening, Israel time.
