Margot Dudkevitch Jan. 12, 2003

Two Palestinian boys aged eight and 13 armed with knives were captured Saturday night after infiltrating Netzarim in the northern Gaza Strip in an attempted terror attack.

The two tried to stab the son of one of the residents, but the boy succeeded in evading them and alerted his father, who opened fire after seeing their knives, causing them to flee.

One of the Palestinians then fled into the house of Rabbi Zion Tawill, who also drove him off by shooting at him.

The youth then spotted another resident and told him he was a Thai worker. He was invited him into the man's home and offered a glass of water before security forces arrived and arrested him. His accomplice was captured by soldiers a short time later.

No Netzarim residents were wounded in the attack. The older Palestinian boy suffered a gunshot wound in the buttocks and the younger one suffered a hip fracture. They were treated by a medical team from the Gaza Coast Regional Council at the Karni crossing before being taken to Beersheba's Soroka Hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Shira Chen described their wounds as moderate.

Details of the sequence of events were still unclear late last night, with IDF officials still investigating the incident and questioning residents involved.

Security officials noted that in recent weeks there has been a sharp escalation in attempts to infiltrate Israeli settlements in the area, often by Palestinian youths who are sent to carry out such attacks as a test for acceptance into one of the terrorist organizations. more

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003

Answers

Terrorists Send Drugged Child To Attack Jews Two very young Palestinian terrorists - 10 and 13 years old - infiltrated the Jewish town of Netzarim in Gaza last night, armed with knives. At least one of them was "totally drugged, unable to answer our most basic questions," said Brig.-Gen. Yisrael Ziv, IDF Commander of the Gaza Division. They attacked a Jewish boy, entered a house, and were shot at - though not before one of them was hosted graciously by a resident who thought his guest was a Thai worker. They were finally captured by security forces and taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment.

Gen. Ziv said that it is still not known who sent the two boys, "but this is not the first time the terrorists have used children in such a cynical manner. Just a week ago, they did the same thing in the area of Elei Sinai... It's clear that the terrorists did not think that by sending these children, they would succeed in killing anyone; instead, their criminal thoughts were that the very deaths [of the children terrorists in the course of the attack] would give Israel a bad name... Sometimes they do the same with mentally unbalanced people; it just impossible to tolerate this type of behavior..." (See next item below.) here

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003