UP TO THE MINUTE INFO FROM SHOMRON
NEWS SERVICE:
Natalie Alkali
Natalie was 13 years old at the time of the shooting.
She called her mother that fateful morning to tell her how much she was
enjoying the class trip. Her father was crippled in a work accident and
it was left to Natalie to become the pillar of her family.
Keren Cohen
Keren was 13 years old and really wanted to go
on the class trip, but her parents didn't have enough money, so her grandmother
agreed to pay for her.
Nirit Cohen
Nirit was 13 years old. One of her uncles was
killed in the #18 bus terrorist attack in Jerusalem last year and another
uncle was killed in Lebanon.
Ya'ala Meiri
Ya'ala was 12 years old and was buried next to
her father who died when she was only one year old.
Adi Malca
Adi was a 12 years old daughter to deaf-mute parents.
She was their mouth and their ears - dedicating her life to caring for
her parents and the care of her 11 year-old twin brothers.
Sheri Bediev
Sheri was 13 years old and a new Olah (immigrant)
from Uzbakestan in Israel only five years when she became the first girl
to be hit when the shooting began.
Sivan Badichi
Sivan, 13 years old from Moshav Tzalphon, didn't
want to go on the class trip, but was convinced to go. Her cousin dreamed
that Sivan left for a class trip, was shot at, and killed.
HaShem Yikom DaMam
Jordanian soldiers overpowered the gunman who was arrested. Colleagues
identified him as Ahmed Moussa, 26, from Adasiya, a town near the scene.
"All the girls screamed and cried and ran beneath bushes to hide.
Many girls were hurt and bloody. I was hit in the leg," said Hila
Ivri, 14, at a hospital in northern Israel. Her sister was shot in the
stomach.
"I saw the gunmen. He held his gun. He was shooting, and then he
started shooting again...He was a bad guy with big eyes," she said.
"I saw one girl who was hit in the shoulder. She rolled over the
bushes and then stopped breathing," said Ivri, one of 122 girls on
an annual field trip from a religious school at Bet Shemesh near Jerusalem.
In Washington, US President Bill Clinton called the shooting "senseless"
and appealed for calm in the region.
"There's no reason to believe this was politically motivated,"
Clinton told reporters.
Palestinian minister Hanan Ashrawi blamed Israeli settlement policy
for creating "an atmosphere of hostility and distrust which is conducive
to violence."
King Hussein cut short a visit to Spain and put off a trip to Washington
to return home. He telephoned Netanyahu from his plane to offer condolences,
Israeli officials said.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who has spurned Netanyahu's overtures
for a week because of Jerusalem settlement plans, also telephoned.
King Hussein wrote to Benyamin Netanyahu on Sunday accusing him of pushing
Arabs and Israelis toward "an abyss of bloodshed and disaster."
"Who knows...how many of these gun-toting lunatics are waiting
for the green light in the form a remark in which Israel is described the
way it is being described today," Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy
said. Asked if he was referring to the king's letter, Levy said no.
Western officials said the shooting would temporarily take the diplomatic
heat off Netanyahu, who would be able to point to Arab violence as the
greatest threat to peacemaking.
But the shooting puts pressure on Washington to defuse the crisis between
Netanyahu and Arafat who has summoned Western and Arab envoys to a meeting
in Gaza Saturday.
Israel will not attend the meeting, which Arafat has billed as an attempt
to save the peace process. Arafat's aide Marwan Kanafani said the PLO chairman
was willing to meet Netanyahu providing the meeting focused on the settlement
issue. (REUTERS 3/13)
***************
(SNS News Service -Israel..3/12)
At about 11:15am, the group of school-children arrived in Nahrayim.
The adults who were escorting the children were told to check in their
weapons at the kibbutz. The area which they planned to tour, "The
Island of Peace", which is under the control of the Jordanian government,
does not permit entry with weapons.
The group of almost 80 (51 schoolgirls and staff) arrived on schedule.
The buses parked on the asphalt parking lot and the children got off. It
was not too long afterwards, at about 11:40am, shot rang out. No one was
certain what was going on.
Suddenly, a Jordanian soldier was seen firing an automatic weapon into
the crowd of teenage school-children.
According to one of the teachers, Rosie Chimi, other Jordanian soldiers
did nothing. They stood by and watched as the soldier tried to shoot down
the young school-children in cold blood.
The adults began shouting, trying to tell the screaming girls to get
down. According to the group's guide, Zecharia Ozeiri, they tried to jump
into the mustard bushes for cover. They hoped the soldier would not see
them. None of them were armed. Their weapons were already given in.
After emptying two magazines of his automatic weapon, the attacking
soldier's gun jammed. Only then did other Jordanian soldiers jump the attacker.
The name of the Jordanian soldier who fired on the girls is Achmed Mussa.
Rosie Chimi stated the soldier at one point moved closer to them. He
was about 30 meters away when he began to shot and then moved up to almost
point-blank range. No one moved to stop him. After the soldier was stopped,
they now stopped us and other staff members from trying to administer first
aid to the injured. They took the seriously injured and dead girls on a
large white bus and drove off." (It was learned the Jordanian soldiers
drove the injured girls to Shuneh, about ten minutes away from the scene
of the attack).
According to the eyewitnesses, the Jordanians had several automatic
weapons and heavy machine guns at the border station. Despite this, "They
did nothing. They stood and watched."
According to official Israeli sources, Jordanian officials prevented
EMS ambulances, IDF ambulances, and other emergency officials from entering
into the area, for 40 minutes.
This is a gross violation of the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan which
specifically makes provisions in the event of a terrorist incident.
According to the treaty, Israeli emergency crews have automatic access
to the area, under Jordanian control since the peace treaty was signed.
After finally receiving the okay, all Israeli emergency crews did enter
the area and they began to treat the less seriously wounded.
As of this evening, two girls remain hospitalized in Hadassah Hospital,
in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, in serious but not life-threatening condition.
According to the Chief of the Hadassah Trauma Unit, Professor Avi Rifkind,
the Jordanian physicians saved the lives of the two by performing emergency
surgery and stabilizing them. The two underwent additional surgery after
their arrival in Hadassah. Rifkind stated the care the two girls received
in Jordan was appropriate and he commended the physicians for their work.
Four more girls remained hospitalized in the Puriah Hospital in Tiberias and their condition is being described as light to moderate.
Foreign Minister David Levy has indirectly blamed King Hussein of Jordan
- who wrote an exceedingly stinging letter of criticism to Netanyahu this
week - for the deaths of the seven girls. Levy said that the murderous
attack is a direct result of "incitement from various quarters."
The Foreign Minister called upon the King to refrain from threats that
escalate the tension and lead to murder. He warned that the atmosphere
of escalation could cause further tragedies. King Hussein of Jordan, who
was in Spain this morning on his way to Washington, has called off his
trip and returned to Jordan. He sent condolences to President Weizmann
over the murderous attack, and said that the children who were shot "are
like my own children."
Defense Minister Yitzchak Mordechai told Jordanian kingdom officials
who called to relay their condolences, "It is important to recognize
that strong words are quickly translated into actions in this region."
MK Michael Kleiner said, "The letter that King Hussein sent this
week to Prime Minister Netanyahu can be regarded as invitation to murder.
The Jordanians have a long history of crazy [referring to the official
Jordanian statement today that the murderer was mentally unstable] Legionnaires
from the 50's and 60's, but the despicable murder of innocent children
at this time is a proof that there is a 'method to their madness.'"
Kleiner called upon the Prime Minister to consider lowering the status
of diplomatic relations with Jordan.
(ARUTZ 7 3/13)
(SNS News Service -Israel..3/13) SNS world wide web site will be updated
constantly for up-to-the-minute news in connection to this morning's attack.
The next Update will be published in several hours. Stay in touch with
our www site for breaking info. (http://www.snsnews.co.il) or (http://www.snsnews.co.il/textonly/).
****************************************
Background
A Jordanian soldier fatally shot seven Israeli schoolgirls on a field
trip Thursday to a border site called "The Island of Peace,"
Israeli police said.
"We have a report of seven dead," a police announcement said.
Israel sent a helicopter and medical team to Jordan where some of the
dead and wounded were taken.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Jordan to punish
those responsible for "the murder of innocent girls."
The uniformed soldier turned his automatic rifle on the girls, aged
about 13, as they looked from an observation point across the River Jordan
to Syria and the Golan Heights. Other soldiers eventually overpowered him,
witnesses said.
"We walked around and I heard shots...It was close...I turned around
and saw a soldier taking a clip from his rifle and firing and we ran to
the hill...He shot me in the hand," said Ornit, one of the 120 girls
on an annual field trip from a school at Bet Shemesh near Jerusalem.
The girls were at a site called "The Island of Peace," a farm
area that Israel leases from Jordan under their 1994 peace treaty.
Israeli officials said the shooting seemed to be the work of a lone
soldier. They said they were in close contact with the Jordanian authorities
who had sent investigators to the site.
"We yelled for the girls to get down and we all tried to hide,"
said witness Rosha Himi. "He came down and started chasing us. I saw
how he inserted a new clip but with the second one he didn't manage to
fire," Himi told reporters.
Apart from infiltrations by Palestinian guerrillas the heavily guarded
Israeli-Jordanian frontier has been quiet for years. Israelis have been
able to cross into Jordan since the 1994 treaty which gave Israel its warmest
ties with any Arab state.
King Hussein of Jordan wrote to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday accusing
him of pushing Arabs and Israelis toward "an abyss of bloodshed and
disaster" over the Har Homa building project on the outskirts of East
Jerusalem.
"Perhaps the conclusion is that the King must hold his tongue so
that a soldier doesn't take his words to mean more than he intended,"
Israel's Education Minister Zevulun Hammer told Army radio.
Hammer, whose pro-settlement party has threatened to quit Netanyahu's
coalition government if the Jerusalem building is frozen, said: "There
is a problem with the best of our neighbors. Ninety percent of the Knesset
voted for this peace and look what happens just for the heck of it. No
one provoked here. There was no provocation."
The shooting took place at around 11.45 this morning. About 20 other
schoolgirls were hurt during the attack. Four were taken to a hospital
in Tiberias, while another seven were taken to hospitals in Jordan.
King Hussein has telephoned Israeli President Ezer Weizman to express
his regrets over the incident. (REUTERS, KOL ISRAEL, BBC 3/13)
********************************************************
Jordanians Prevent Emergency Crews From Assisting- 2:56pm
Israeli sources are now confirming reports that immediately after this
morning's attack, Jordanian soldiers did not permit EMS ambulances and
first-responder medical units enter the area which is on Jordanian soil,
and administer emergency medical care to the injured.
Israel has not stated exactly how long the delay was until Israeli emergency
personnel were permitted access to the injured. Israel has already stated
this was a gross violation of the peace treaty with Jordan.
Jordanian officials also prevented Israeli military and medical personnel
from accessing the injured and prohibited them from transporting any of
the injured in the early stages following the attack.
****
Injured Enroute Back to Israel -2:45pm
(SNS News Service -Israel..3/13) According to Israeli officials, the
two critically injured girls who were to have been treated by the Israeli
surgical team are now on their way in an IAF helicopter to the Hadassah
Ein Keren Trauma Center, accompanied by the Israeli team.
Jordanian officials have already issued a statement that the soldier
who opened fire was mentally unstable. This has become the standard response
over the years following several other attacks on Israelis by Jordanian
military officials.
The soldier who opened fire was in a guard tower and fired down on the
defenseless group of children and their escorts. Five dead girls were transported
to a Jordanian hospital in Shuneh. The attack took place on Jordanian soil,
an area that is open to Israeli tourists as well.
One Jordanian soldier was also reported to have been wounded in this
morning's attack as he tried to subdue the soldier who was firing on the
schoolgirls.
Medical Team Arrives in Shuneh from Israel- 2:33pm
(SNS News Service -Israel..3/13) The Israeli surgical team from Tiberias
has arrived in Shuneh and the team is going to do whatever possible to
save the lives of two Israeli schoolgirls critically injured by a Jordanian
soldier who opened fire this morning at a group of touring children.
According to Bet Shemesh officials, about eighty girls, all from the
Furst School in Bet Shemesh, participated in the three day trip. The touring
was for three days which began on Tuesday.
Worried parents and children are gathering in the school building in
Bet Shemesh as everyone is trying to find out the names of the injured
and the dead and the injured. Hysterical mothers and fathers await information
about their daughters who participated in the school trip.
The school has set up a hotline number for information- 02-990-9999.
Links to the White House, Congress and the Senate are available in our
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