Posted on 06/27/2003 11:38:54 AM PDT by yonif
Bezeq technician Amos (Amit) Mantin, 31, of Hadera, was shot dead in the center of Baka al-Gharbiya, near Hadera, on Thursday morning by a 15-year-old gunman affiliated with the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Mantin, who had driven to the town to fix a phone line, was sitting in his parked car when the gunman sneaked up and shot him at point-blank range. Asher Ben-Naim, the Bezeq security guard who accompanied Mantin, pursued the gunman and shot and wounded him. With the aid of locals and troops, he captured the terrorist, who was taken to the Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera where he underwent surgery. His condition described as serious.
Mantin was buried in his hometown cemetery on Thursday evening and is survived by his parents and four brothers and sisters.
The Aksa Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting and said it was the first in a series of planned attacks in response to the killing of Palestinians in Hebron and the Gaza Strip. Hours later, at the Kalanit roadblock near the town, a Border Police antiterrorist unit shot and killed two Palestinians carrying backpacks containing powerful bombs on their way to carry out a double suicide bombing. Two other Palestinians believed to be their dispatchers were also captured by security forces nearby and handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning. Hours later sappers blew up the bombs carried by the two dead terrorists.
It was the second time in less than 24 hours that security forces succeeded in thwarting a large-scale suicide bombing. On Wednesday, they captured a bomber and his helper in Kafr Kassam who were on their way to Petah Tikva. On Thursday morning the Tanzim dispatcher of the two was arrested by soldiers.
Security officials noted that all the terrorist organizations continue to plan attacks despite the conflicting reports in the Palestinian media suggesting that a three-month hudna, or cease-fire, may be declared by Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas in the near future. The officials noted that there had been no mention by any Palestinian officials of plans to disarm the terrorist organizations. The number of terrorist warnings recorded on Thursday was 60, the second day in a row that such a large number of warnings were received.
Meanwhile, a Jerusalem motorist was wounded when terrorists shot at his vehicle as he traveled on the Hussan bypass road between el-Khader and Betar Illit late Thursday night.
A Magen David Adom ambulance was sent to the site and paramedics treated the man, who suffered gunshot wounds to the thigh and hand. He was taken to Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem. A female passenger in the car was unharmed. Security forces carried out searches for the perpetrators during the night.
The Baka al-Gharbiya attack occurred close to 11:30 a.m. in the town, located east of Hadera on the seam line. Half of the town is inside Israel and the other half under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Security officials told The Jerusalem Post they believe the attack was orchestrated by Fatah's al-Aksa Brigades in the Jenin area. They were seeking to determine the identity of the teenager and additional details but due to his condition investigators were unable to question him.
Mantin, accompanied by a security guard came to the town to repair a telephone. After driving into the town center, Mantin stayed in the car while Ben-Naim, the guard, went to check the location where the repair was to take place. The 15-year-old gunman then approached the driver's window and fired five bullets at Mantin point blank and attempted to flee. Ben-Naim, hearing the gunfire, turned around and immediately pursued the terrorist who attempted to flee.
"I took out my weapon and fired shots towards him," said Ben-Naim. "Despite his wounds he attempted to flee. I lost sight of him, raced back to check Amos and saw the locals were treating him and told me the direction the terrorist fled. I pursued him, finally catching up with him and with the help of others forced him to the ground." "Despite my training, I couldn't prevent the murder," he said.
Northern District police chief Cmdr. Ya'akov Borovsky praised Ben-Naim for his quick thinking. Mantin's family said that he had recently changed his name to Amit because he wanted something more modern. The oldest of five children, he worked for Bezeq for seven years and then took a period of two years off to study industrial management at a college in the North. He had worked as a technician for over a year and only fairly recently began carrying out repairs at Baka al-Gharbiya. His sister, Galit, said that he had told the family how residents in Baka al-Gharbiya received him warmly and that they had nothing to worry about.
Mantin is the 812th person killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack since the outbreak of current uprising in September 2000.
Early on Thursday morning two Kassam rockets were fired at Sderot. One of the rockets landed outside the town and another in an open field close to a nearby kibbutz but failed to exploded. In the afternoon sappers detonated a 25-kilogram bomb placed by terrorists near the north Gaza border fence not far from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. An antitank rocket was fired at an IDF post near Ganei Tal and three mortar shells were fired at a settlement in Gush Katif.
In Nablus a bomb was detonated and firebombs thrown at troops deployed in the Balata refugee camp. No one was wounded in the attack. South of Tulkarm, security forces arrested Shadi Maloua, who was planning to carry out a suicide bomb attack in Israel. In raids in Tubas, Hebron, and Bethlehem, security forces arrested 10 Palestinian fugitives. Also in Hebron, security forces demolished the home of Hamas terrorist Nader Radwan Abed al-Hakim Turki, who recruited suicide bombers and was responsible for shooting and bomb attacks on Israeli vehicles in 2001.
Consider: He may have information.
Once again, the Jews shoot an innocent Arab child, whose only crime was killing a hated telephone-fixing Jew. No wonder the Arabs want to kill them all the Jews and throw their bodies into the sea.
And should they lose sight of this grand vision and will of Allah, blessed be He in His Infinite Mercy, the world press will always be there to remind them to kill the evil Jews.
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