TEL AVIV — Israeli authorities have been placed on alert in
wake of the killing of four people by an army deserter.
Officials said police and security forces were placed on alert in
northern Israel in wake of a bus attack by an Israeli soldier, later lynched
by a mob. Those killed were members of Israel's Druse community.
A man identified as a Jewish army deserter entered a bus in the Arab
town of Shfaram on Thursday and opened fire. At least four were people were
killed and 16 injured in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon deemed a terrorist
attack.
"This was a reprehensible act by a bloodthirsty Jewish terrorist who
sought to attack innocent Israeli citizens," Sharon said. "This terrorist
event was a deliberate
attempt to harm the fabric of relations among all Israeli citizens."
A crowd of passersby rushed the bus and killed the gunman, who by then
had been handcuffed by police. The dead attacker was later identified as
Eden Zaada, a 19-year-old resident of an Israeli community in the northern
West Bank. Zaada's parents said their son did not want to serve in the army
and sought to turn in his weapon to Israeli police last month. They said
police refused to accept his son's weapon.
"The Chief of Staff ordered that the circumstances surrounding and
leading to the possession of an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] weapon by the
soldier, who had defected and was of a problematic background, be
investigated," a military statement said.
The military plans to collect weapons of reservists who live in the 25
Israeli communities slated for evacuation later this month. Officials said
residents were cooperating and have so far handed in such weapons as
army-issued machine guns, mortars and grenade launchers.
Officials said Zaada was a member of the outlawed Israeli movement
Kach, which advocates the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. They said Zaada
went missing about a month ago, apparently to avoid participating in the
military operation to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
Police were placed on alert throughout the north to prepare for rioting
in Druse and Arab towns in the Galilee. Israeli Arab parliamentarians said
the attack marked an attempt to scuttle the withdrawal operation.
"We are witnessing attempts by extreme right-wing people, terrorists,
who want to set the region ablaze," parliamentarian Mohammed Barakeh said.