WarSclerotic

The teenager who was critically wounded after Gaza militants launched an anti-aircraft missile at a school bus in southern Israel earlier this month succumbed to his wounds Sunday.

16-year-old Daniel Viflic died in the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva after his condition seriously deteriorated last week.

	Bus damaged by missile strike from Gaza which wounded two people, April 7, 2011.
	Photo by: Ilan Assayag

The missile hit the bus traveling near Kibbutz Sa’ad just moments after it had dropped off the rest of the school children, wounding Viflic and the bus driver, who was moderately wounded by shrapnel wounds in his leg.

“Sadly, Daniel passed away this afternoon,” said Professor Shaul Sofer, the director of the intensive care unit at the Soroka Medical Center. “It wasn’t a surprise for us. He arrived in critical condition and shortly afterward his brain stopped functioning. Due to the sensitive nature of the event, we continued treatments despite knowing that he had no chance of recovery.”

Yitzhak Viflic, Daniel’s father, thanked the doctors and the supporters of his family. “Daniel fought but passed away calmly. I am positive he is in a good place now.”

Viflic was a resident of Beit Shemesh and studied in a yeshiva there. When he was wounded, he was on his way to the western Negev to visit his grandmother.

Following the bus attack, cross-border fire between Gaza and Israel seriously escalated. Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel and IDF forces launched numerous attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip.

Protests erupted Sunday in several Syrian cities, including Suweida and Aleppo, with thousands of demonstrators calling for greater freedom a day after President Bashar Assad promised to lift the decades-old emergency laws.

Thousands of protesters in the southern town of Suweida participated in a rally to mark Evacuation Day, commemorating the departure of the last French soldiers 65 years ago and Syria’s proclamation of independence. Supporters of Assad were present alongside protesters, declaring loyalty to the president.

	Syrian anti-government protesters march in the northeastern town of Qamishli on April 1, 2011
	Photo by: AFP

Several hundred people chanted “the people want freedom” at the grave of independence leader Ibrahim Hananu in Syria’s second city Aleppo on Sunday, a rights campaigner in contact with the protesters said.

Aleppo, a large trading and industrial hub, has been mostly free of protests since mass pro-democracy demonstrations challenging President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule erupted more than a month ago in southern Syria and spread to large parts in the country of 20 million people.

Assad said on Saturday that the emergency laws, in place for almost 50 years, would be lifted by next week. But he did not address protesters’ demands to curb Syria’s pervasive security apparatus and dismantle its authoritarian system.

“God, Syria, freedom, that’s all,” chanted several hundred protesters in the South Syria town of Suweida. They also shouted “no fear” and slogans in support of the city of Deraa, where protests first broke out a month ago and has suffered the heaviest bloodshed.

Human rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed since demonstrations erupted in Deraa on March 18 in protest against the arrest of youths who had scrawled graffiti inspired by the Arab uprisings in North Africa.

The unprecedented unrest has spread across the tightly controlled state, posing the sternest challenge yet to the 45-year-old Assad, who assumed the presidency in 2000 when his father, Hafez Assad, died after 30 years in power.

Authorities have pledged to replace the repressive emergency law with anti-terrorism legislation, but opposition figures said this was likely to preserve tough restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly in Syria, which has been under Baath Party rule since 1963.

“When the lifting of the emergency law package is issued, it should be firmly enforced. The Syrian people are civilized. They love order and they do not accept chaos and mob rule,” Assad told a new cabinet which he named last week.

“We will not be lenient toward sabotage,” Assad said in the comments broadcast by state television. Syrian authorities have blamed “infiltrators” for stirring up unrest at the behest of outside players, including Lebanon and Islamist groups.

State news agency SANA said on Sunday a “large quantity” of weapons had been seized at the Tanaf border crossing with Iraq, including rifles, night vision goggles, explosives and pistols.

It said officials also had recently seized arms shipments at crossings with Turkey and Lebanon.

Emergency law bans public gatherings of more than five people and has stifled public dissent until Syrians took to the streets in March, emboldened by the popular uprisings that ousted autocratic leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

In his speech to the cabinet, Assad said corruption was a problem and a commission to address it should be set up. He did not, however, announce any measures to end his own family’s dominance over the Syrian economy.

Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon, has expanded his businesses during Assad’s rule and he has been widely cited by protesters in their calls for an end to public corruption.

The West, which had been trying to coax Syria away from its anti-Israeli alliance with Iran and support for militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, has urged Assad to refrain from violent crackdowns on disaffected Syrians.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed what he said was Assad’s “acknowledgement…that reform in Syria is necessary and urgent”.

“We call on the Syrian government to lift the state of emergency next week as proposed by President Assad and to ensure that those responsible for the deaths of civilians are held to account,” Hague said.

Israeli security forces have arrested two teenage residents of the West Bank Arab village of Awarta for allegedly carrying out last month’s murder of five family members in the settlement of Itamar, the lifting of a gag order revealed on Sunday.

Palestinian students Amjad Awad, 19, and Hakim Awad 18, both admitted to committing the murder.

	The suspects in the murder of the Fogel family in Itamar, Amjad Awad and Hakim Awad, with the crime scene in the background.

Five members of the Fogel family were brutally stabbed to death in their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar on the night of March 11th. The murderers killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel, along with three of their young children, Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months old, before fleeing the scene.

The two suspects, who are unrelated to one another, were identified as members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine along with several members of their family.

Shin Bet investigators have at this point not identified the murder as being carried out under the auspices of the Popular Front organization. According to what is currently known, the murders were carried out independently by the two suspects.

Six additional Palestinian suspects from Awad were also arrested in connection to the crime, four of whom belong to the same family. The six purportedly aided the two alleged perpetrators in hiding the murder weapon and in suppressing additional evidence. One of the six is a member of the Popular Front organization whom the suspects supposedly asked for a weapon to carry out a terror attack. Another one of the six is a resident of Ramallah at whose home the murder weapon was hidden.

An investigation revealed that the two suspects decided that they would carry out the murder on Friday afternoon, hours before the murder was carried out. According to the investigation, the two left Awarta at nine p.m. carrying an umbrella, several knives and wire cutting shears.

	The victims of the Itamar settlement attack, 10-year-old Yoav Fogel, Udi Fogel, 37, four-year-old Elad Fogel, three-month old Hadas Fogel and Ruth Fogel, 36.
	Photo by: Emil Salman

According to the investigation, it took the suspects about ten minutes to cut the fence which separates the settlement of Itamar from the Palestinian village of Awarta. They climbed the security barrier at the settlement unnoticed and walked about 400 meters into the settlement. Once inside the settlement, they broke into an empty home and stole an M-16 rifle, a weapons cartridge, a vest and a helmet before proceeding to the Fogel family’s home.

Before entering the house, the suspects noticed Yoav and Elad Fogel in the home’s window. Yoav and Elad were the first to be stabbed after the suspect entered the home. The suspects then entered the parents’ room. Ehud and Ruth tried to fight off the attackers, but were eventually overcome and stabbed to death. Ruth was also shot, but due to the weather at the time of the murder, the gunshots were not heard. The suspects fled the home, fearing that the gunshots had been heard.

Outside of the home, the suspects realized that their gunshots had gone unnoticed and they had not yet been discovered. Amjad Awad subsequently reentered the home in order to steal an additional M-16 rifle that was there. Back inside the parents’ room, Awad noticed three-month-old Hadas and stabbed her to death. While leaving the home once more, the suspect noticed that there were more children but apparently figured that he was running out of time. The lives of Roi Fogel, 8, and Yishai Fogel, 2, were spared.

The two suspects escaped the settlement at around 11 pm. An hour and a half later, twelve-year-old Tamar Fogel returned home from a youth group meeting and discovered the murder scene.

During the time that lapsed before the murder was discovered, the suspects fled Itamar and arrived back at Awarta, at the home of Salah Awad, the uncle of Hakim. According to the investigation, the suspects told Salah what they had done. Salah helped them hide the knives that they used in the murder and the weapons which they stole, as well as helped burn their clothes, which were covered in blood.

Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the scene of the murder and made sure that there were no terrorists in the area. The IDF troops, along with the Shin Bet then left to carry out arrests in Awarta, to which a trail from the murder had led. Hundreds of the village’s 8,000 residents were arrested in the ongoing investigation.

Investigators came upon Hakim Awad on April 5th, and after he confessed to the crime, his alleged partner Amjad Awad five days later. During the investigation the father of Hakim was arrested along with two of his uncles and his brother. In addition, the man who the suspects supposedly approached to procure a weapon was arrested along with the Ramallah resident at whose home the two M-16 rifles were found hidden.

According to a senior Shin Bet official, despite the suspects’ young age, Hakim and Amjad “described what they did with self-control and did not express regret over their actions at any stage of the investigation.”

The same official said that the two suspects went to Itamar with the clear intention of carrying out a terror attack and stealing weapons.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak welcomed Friday a decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to approve a budget which includes $205 million intended for continuing development of the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Barak said the decision is a “significant reinforcement of Israel’s defense capabilities against missiles.”

	Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minster Ehud Barak visit the Iron Dome defense system in Ashkelon, April 10, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

The U.S. Congress also voted to continue aiding Israel to fund defense projects such as Arrow 2, Arrow 3, and Magic Wand. U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the budget on Friday evening.

Earlier this month, the Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepted for the first time a Grad rocket fired at Israel from Gaza. The achievement marked the first time in history a short-range rocket was ever intercepted.

The Israeli-developed system uses cameras and radar to track incoming rockets and is supposed to shoot them down within seconds of their launch.

Last weekend, Israel-Gaza violence heavily escalated when Gaza militants launched a rocket at an Israeli school bus, which left a teenager critically wounded.

Moreover, southern Israel suffered a heavy barrage of rocket and mortar fire for several days, as IDF forces launched strikes in Gaza which left 19 Hamas militants and two civilians dead.

Last weekend’s escalation was followed by five days of relative calm when two rockets hit the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Friday, in a move which may spark further violence.

The few days’ lull in the south was broken on Friday by a Grad rocket fired from Gaza toward Israel on Friday. The rocket exploded in an open ground in Ashdod, causing no casualties or damage. Earlier reports of another rocket fired proved unfounded.

The Israel Defense Forces responded with an attack on two Hamas outposts, one in Gaza City and another in the Shati refugee camp. Despite the rocket, IDF sources told Haaretz they believe relative quiet will be maintained in the next few days.

	Policemen examining rockets that struck near Ashdod Saturday.
	Photo by: Ilan Asayag

Meanwhile, the Israel Navy fired on a fishing boat that entered the no-sailing zone in the Gaza waters. The IDF believes Hamas and other organizations are using fishing boats to test the vigilance of patrolling navy ships and the reactions of the IDF.

Although the IDF regards Hamas as responsible for any rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the army believes Friday’s rocket was launched by one of the Islamist organizations in the Strip. The army hopes the attack over the weekend will restore a balance of deterrence, and does not believe Hamas will try to escalate the confrontation in the next few weeks. Other organizations may try to do it independently, the army warned.

On Friday, the U.S. Congress allocated $205 million to continue developing and producing the Iron Dome rocket interception system. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the move, saying the money will help protect Israeli civilians from Gaza rockets. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the step significantly strengthens Israel’s defensive capability against rocket attacks, and he reaffirmed the depth of American support for Israel’s security.

The preceding weekend 120 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza, keeping tens of thousands of Israelis in communities near Gaza in bomb shelters. The barrage came soon after militants fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus operated by the Shaar Hanegev regional council, leaving one boy critically injured. The IDF attacked tens of targets in the Strip, killing 19 Palestinians and injuring more than 50. The Iron Dome system so far has intercepted eight rockets fired toward Ashdod and Ashkelon.