Three Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza Strip

Adi Osman wasn’t satisfied with being a radio operator in the Israeli army. Just 19, she wanted to be a combat soldier like many of her male colleagues, but she was passed over.

But on Friday, Osman died in the line of duty anyway, killed by a Palestinian gunman who fired into her living quarters in an army outpost set up to guard a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.

Osman and 19-year-old Sarit Shneior, who also died in the predawn attack, became two of only a handful of female Israeli soldiers to be killed in the bloody 3-year-old Palestinian uprising. A third recruit, Alon Avrahami, 20, was gunned down, and two other soldiers were injured, before Israeli troops fatally shot the attacker. A second Palestinian gunman escaped.

The deaths early Friday added to the spiraling number of casualties in Gaza in the last two weeks. Hours later, another name was added to the list: Mohammed Al-Hamaydeh, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy struck by a bullet as he passed by an Israeli army outpost on his way to Friday prayers. Palestinians say the shot was fired by the Israelis; the Israeli army denies that.

Since Israeli forces launched an ongoing search Oct. 10 for tunnels believed to be used to smuggle weapons from Egypt, at least 30 people have been killed in violent clashes or attacks in the narrow Gaza Strip. All but six of the victims have been Palestinians, many of them suspected militants but some of them simply bystanders, including several killed in an intense series of Israeli airstrikes Monday.

The toll also includes three American security officers who perished in a blast last week as they escorted U.S. diplomats into Gaza. It was the first deadly attack by Palestinians on a U.S. target since the uprising began.

The deaths of Osman and Shneior outside the Jewish settlement of Netzarim immediately revived debate on the role of women in the Israeli army and the cost of protecting such settlements, this one the home to about 60 families deep inside the Gaza Strip, surrounded by more than 1 million Palestinians.

The two women were in their barracks when a gunman from the radical group Hamas managed to slip through a fence in heavy fog and darkness and break into the army camp about 4:15 a.m. A second gunman, from Islamic Jihad, tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate from another position.

The pair tossed grenades and squeezed off rounds of automatic gunfire, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. The attacker who got into the outpost, Samir Fouda, fired into a barracks housing male soldiers and another housing female soldiers.

It was unclear whether Fouda entered the rooms themselves or whether the recruits were asleep at the time. But an Israeli military source said that photos of the women’s domicile showed blood spattered on the beds and floor.

After the ensuing gun battle, the three soldiers were found dead and two others wounded. Fouda also lay lifeless, but his accomplice had fled, sparking an intense but futile search.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued a joint statement of responsibility, saying the attack was in retaliation for Israel’s continuing offensive in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah and in West Bank cities such as Jenin.

“The Palestinian people are going forward in their jihad, and we will not accept the Jewish invasions in Rafah and in Jenin or anywhere else,” Hamas leader Nizar Rayan told hundreds of Gazans who marched to Fouda’s home in support Friday.

Osman and Shneior were the first female Israeli army recruits to be fatally shot since December, when 19-year-old Keren Yaacoby was shot in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron. Yaacoby was the first female soldier killed in the line of duty since women were integrated into combat units six years ago amid some controversy, the Israeli military said.

Osman’s sister, Einat, told Israeli radio that Adi had always wanted to see action.

“She never thought of being a secretary. She wanted to be a combat soldier with a gun and everything. She went through basic training, then a radio operator’s course. She was given a gun,” Einat said, “but a month ago it was taken from her because of budget cuts.”

Reserve Brig. Gen. Yehudit Ben Natan, the former head of the military’s Women’s Corps, accused the army of unequal treatment of its female conscripts.

“I want to ask the commanders, did they all also take the guns from the male soldiers?” she said. “I am sure this girl had great potential. She could have been a fighter but was not allowed to be -- not because there are enough other soldiers, because if there were enough, then we wouldn’t need a sudden call-up of several reserve battalions.”

Einat Osman said that instead of action, her sister found maddening inactivity in her assigned post. “Her entire stay in Netzarim was pointless,” Einat said bitterly. “It was a waste of time and manpower.”

Yael Tamir, a legislator from the Labor Party, called on the government to pull troops and settlers out of the area and redeploy the soldiers to the Israeli-West Bank border.

“We know that sitting there [in Gaza] is futile and harmful to the country. It endangers both soldiers and settlers, takes too much of our resources, and to no end,” Tamir said.

But supporters say that the army’s presence around Netzarim is essential to preventing Palestinian attacks not just in the settlement itself but in Israeli cities such as Ashkelon, near the border with Gaza.

Hours after the predawn assault, Palestinian militants launched mortar shells into the Gush Katif settlement bloc in Gaza, but no one was injured, Israeli radio reported.

The Israeli army’s commander in the south, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, warned of more violence now that seasonal fog that provides cover for militants has rolled into Gaza. He praised the dedication of both male and female soldiers in the area.