Updates

From the Hebrew-language Israeli press comes this rare good news story, showing that the relations between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians is more complex that it often appears from the daily news-reports, which focuses on violence and confrontation.

On 25th August Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers rescued a Palestinian woman and her baby, who were trapped in the Erez crossing (between Israel and the Gaza strip) by a mortar attack launched by Palestinian terror organisations from the Gaza strip. During the attack, mortars hit the Erez crossing while three Palestinian women and their infants were crossing back into the Gaza Strip after receiving medical treatment in Israel. The mortars caused damage to the crossing’s infrastructure leading to an electrical shutdown which disabled the electronic gates. After two of the women passed through safely, a third woman, along with her infant daughter, were caught between two disabled gates while rockets were falling around the crossing. So due to the mortar attack, this Palestinian woman and her baby daughter were trapped, and endangered by terrorist mortar fire.

According to the IDF website, the crossing commander, Lieutenant Colonel Wahel Tafesh, said that the woman was trapped between the Israeli gate and the Gazan gate along with her daughter, and was screaming and unable to either re-enter the Israeli side nor cross over to the Palestinian side. With mortars still falling, the commander and another security officer rescued the woman and her daughter by climbing over the gates and helping them climb out. All three Palestinian women and their children were evacuated to a protected shelter at the crossing, and were given a meal to end the daily Ramadan fast, before returning safely to their homes in the strip. The terrorists who fired the mortar shell hitting the Erez Crossing were later targeted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF).

Or Avi-Guy