TEL AVIV Ñ For the first time in their more than 16-month-old war, Palestinian insurgents succeeded in destroying an Israeli tank regarded as the best protected in the world.

Palestinian insurgents blew up the Merkava Mk-3 tank in the Gaza Strip. Three of the tank's four-member crew were killed in a landmine attack on late Thursday that destroyed the vehicle. The remaining member was lightly injured.

Military sources and analysts said the Palestinian attack marked a watershed in the insurgency war with Israel. They said the Palestinian Authority and its militia allies had been trying for more than a year to develop a mine powerful enough to destroy the Merkava. The sources said the mine contained unidentified explosives never used before in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"We are talking about a new [Palestinian] capability that will affect Israeli military movements in the Gaza Strip," a military source said. "This will have to be thoroughly investigated."

The Mk-3 features a modular special armor and rear access door meant to protect against enemy shells and mines. The tank, containing a 120 mm smooth-bore gun, is reinforced with an automatic fire supression system and an overpressurized fighting compartment for protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

The source said the Palestinians succeeded in destroying the first Merkava tank by exploiting the vulnerability of its undercarriage, the sole area not protected by armor. The Hizbullah, which has provided technical expertise to the Palestinians, managed to disable but not destroy a Merkava tank during the Israeli deployment in southern Lebanon.

"Everybody knows that there are vulnerable points in even the most protected system," [Res.] Brig. Gen. Hanan Bernstein, a former chief armored officer, said. "I am not surprised."

A senior intelligence officer said the purchase of the Karine-A freighter, loaded with Iranian weapons, was meant to procure explosives capable of destroying Israeli armored systems. The officer said one of the weapons found on the Karine-A captured on Jan. 3 was an Iranian rocket-propelled grenade with a tandem warhead meant to penetrate Israeli armored buses.

The Palestinian Resistance Committee, an umbrella group that included members of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsiblity for the attack. The attack began with an explosion near an Israeli armored bus near the Jewish settlement of Netsarim. The Merkava tank was summoned to the scene and was destroyed by a second mine.

Print this Article

Email this article

Free Headline Alerts