IDF Investigation on Hebron attack: Gunmen fired at security forces, not worshippers

[Bryan Atinsky]

I found this article from Ha'aretz interesting.   It states about halfway throught the article that the Israeli army initial investigation states that the Islamic Jihad ambush was directed at the Israeli military forces and not the worshippers.  Further, all one has to do is look at the list of dead (below) to see that only 2 of the dead were non-security settlers.

This contrasts the message coming out by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Pope and Kofi Annan:

Pope: "I want to express my emotional involvement in the pain of the families of those who last Friday were victims in Hebron in the Holy Land of a vile attack, just as people had finished praying at a few steps from the tomb of the man we recognize as the common father of our faith, the Patriarch Abraham," the pope said. 

And Kofi Annan: "Annan has spoken out against Israeli military actions over the past 26 months of fighting, but Friday's statement was one of his toughest on Palestinian terrorism. Annan didn't describe any of the victims as Jewish settlers. Annan said he was "horrified by the despicable terrorist attack in the West Bank... that killed Jewish worshippers on their way to the Sabbath eve prayers and left many injured."" 

 
Here is the section from the Ha'aretz article:
--------------------------------------------------

IDF: Gunmen fired at security forces, not worshippers 
According to an initial investigation by the army, in contrast to a version of events given by the foreign ministry, the Islamic Jihad fire was not directed at worshippers but at the security forces escorting them. All of the dead were from the IDF, Border Police or emergency security team of the settlers of Kiryat Arba and Hebron, who came to help evacuate the wounded. 

The twelve people killed in the attack are: Operations officer, Superintendent Samih Suidan, 31, from the Western Galilee; Sergeant Tomer Nov, 19, from Ashdod; Staff Sergeant Gad Rahamim, 19, from Kiryat Malachi; Staff Sergeant Natanel Mahlouf, 19, from Hadera; and Staff Sergant Yeshayahu Davidov, 20, from Netanya. Also killed was IDF Sergeant Igor Drovitsky, 20, from Nahariya and Private David Marcus, 19, from Ma'aleh Adumim and Lieutenent Yitzhak Boanish, security officer for the Kiryat Arba settlement, was also among the slain as were Alex Zvitman, 26, and Alex Dohan 33, both from Hebron. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <../attachments/20021117/ae5987a3/attachment.htm>