PALIS ATTACK IDF, ABDUCT SOLDIER
A soldier and a tank commander, a second lieutenant, were killed Sunday morning, and another soldier was kidnapped after a Palestinian terror cell launched a combined attack on an Israel Defense Forces post in the southern Gaza Strip, near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom. The names of the soldiers killed in the attack were cleared for publication Sunday afternoon: Lieutenant Hanan Barak (20) from Arad and Sergeant Pavel Slocker from Dimona. Barak and Slocker were killed after terrorists fired a missile at their tank. Several soldiers were lightly to moderately injured in the incident and were taken by helicopter to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.
IDF chief of staff Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz said during a press conference at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom that "as far as the IDF knows, the abducted soldier is alive." "I really cannot go into details, but we have several reasons to believe that he is alive. The estimation was made based on the information we have," he said. Sources in the Palestinian organizations that took part in the attack told media outlets in the Palestinian Authority that "the activists are providing the abducted soldier with medical treatment in order to use him as a bargaining chip and hold negotiations for a hostage exchange deal."
According to the sources, the soldier is seriously wounded. Halutz stressed that "the Palestinians are responsible for the abducted soldier's fate, and we will do everything we can in order to return him. There is no doubt that this caught us by surprise, in certain aspects, without a concrete warning."
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