http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?dir=75&story=12028 3&host=3&printable=1 (...) The army launched an inquiry yesterday into how a large mine managed to destroy a heavily armoured and highly sophisticated Merkava-3 tank, billed as one of the safest fighting machines in the world. Three of the crew were killed, and a fourth was injured in the attack inside the Gaza Strip.
As the army contemplated the possibility of flaws in its standard work-horse tank, it was hit by another disaster – the death of the commander of a "Duvdevan" unit during a pre-dawn raid in the West Bank.
Reports said that 34-year-old Lt-Col Eyal Weiss was killed when a wall collapsed on him while military bulldozers were knocking down an adjoining house used by a suspected Islamic Jihad leader, whom the unit had arrested in the village of Saida. This, too, will be the subject of a military inquiry.
The attack on the tank was treated as highly sensitive by Israel, prompting government censors yesterday to impose a ban on the publication of photographs showing the wreckage on the grounds that it would "damage the security of the state".
The Palestinians have never before destroyed any of the many scores of Merkava tanks which have been operating in the occupied territories during the conflict. The blast blew off the tank's turret.
A diplomatic source said: "It's the first time that a tank has been badly damaged like this, and it's changed the rules entirely." (...)
-Wow!!! The Merkava 3 is the best tank Israel have and of the best of the -world. It´s said this tank is able to survive even impacts of AT-missiles. -If the Palestinians are able to repeat this achievement, then IDF will be -in trouble...
Alexandre Fenelon