Jerusalem – A 19-year-old Ecuadorian citizen, Carlos Chavez, was killed when a Palestinian sniper fired from the border area into Israel yesterday morning. Mr. Chavez was volunteering on potato farmland near Kibbutz Ein-Hashlosha in the northwestern Negev.

According to members of the KIbbutz, the killing followed more than two weeks of daily sniper fire on their farms.

Mr. Chavez was helping a kibbutz member repair a tractor in the field when the Palestinian sniper shot him in the back.

The majority of residents in the northwestern Negev make their living from the surrounding farmland.

Following the shooting, Israeli Defense Forces, including infantry and the Armored Corps, with the assistance of the Air Force, operated in the northern Gaza Strip in order to distance terrorist organizations from the security fence, and in order to prevent Kassam rocket and mortar shell launchings into Israel.

Over 15 Palestinian terrorists were killed during the operation.

The IDF carried out two aerial attacks against mortar shell launching squads. An additional aerial attack was carried out against a group of armed gunmen traveling in a vehicle. In both instances, the IDF identified hitting the targets. The IDF also exchanged fire with armed Palestinian gunmen. During the operation, armed terrorists launched mortar shells and anti-tank missiles at IDF forces. No injuries or damage were reported by the forces.

Meanwhile, Palestinians launched a Kassam rocket yesterday afternoon that hit the city of Ashkelon, causing damage to a road. In addition, a barrage of over eight Kassam rockets hit the city of Sderot yesterday afternoon, lightly wounding five Israeli civilians. One of the Kassam directly hit a residential house in Sderot. Approximately 25 mortar shells were launched throughout the day.

The IDF also carried out an aerial attack against a rocket launching squad in the northern Gaza Strip after they fired rockets into Israel.

Husam Al Zahhar, the son of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, was among the dead terrorists.

Al Qassam Brigades of the Hamas announced that it fired 75 mortars, three RPG missiles, five Kassam rockets at “the Zionist forces.”

One of the Kassam rockets fired at Sderot yesterday evening hit a power line, plunging the western Negev town into darkness.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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