Continuing terrorism

Two exceptional young men, both members of elite IDF units, Lieuts Ahikam Amihai (20) and David Rubin (21) one in the navy and the other in the air force, were killed Friday by terrorists while off-duty on a hiking trip near Kiryat Arba together with a young woman. They should not have been in this area of the West Bank, but apparently got lost and entered an Arab village to ask for directions. Although the villagers were friendly to them, someone must have noted their presence. Later a jeep drove up with four Palestinians in it and apparently was checking them out. It drove away but then returned and opened fire on them. They returned the fire, but were both killed, and one of the terrorists was killed and another injured but they managed to escape. The young woman managed to hide during the firefight, and called the authorities. When she was later found she had wandered away from the site and being distraught could not give accurate directions. It took the IDF an hour to find the two bodies.
This incident occured just after PM Olmert had met with Pres. Abbas and talked about peace, and while Abbas was criticizing Israel for building apartments at Har Homa in Jerusalem. Israel has complained about this incident to the UN. It may be that the Palestinians intended to try to take the Israelis hostage.
Today it was reported on the front page of the J'sam Post that PM Salam Fayyad of the PA has apologized to Israel for this attack and has returned the guns of the killed soldiers to Israel and has the perpetrators in custody. However, there was no independent verification of this report. In any case the current PA Govt. does not have control over most of the West Bank, that operates as a series of fiefdoms. In fact, the IDF caught the wounded perpetrator being treated at the local Hebron Hospital for his gunshots.
Around the same time, IDF troops tried to arrest Muatassam a-Sharif, a bodyguard of Ahmed Querei the Chief Palestinian negotiator, at his home in Betunia on the West Bank. He resisted arrest and was killed in the ensuing gunfight. He was on Israel's most-wanted list for smuggling arms into Gaza and for the manufacture of Kassam rockets. This once again shows the relationship of official Fatah security men with terrorism. Israeli spokesmen complained again that Pres. Abbas is doing nothing to stop terrorism!
Meanwhile several weeks ago a truck was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint on the West Bank carrying 6.5 tons in bags labelled as sugar from the EU for Gaza. When the IDF tested this white substance they found that it was in fact potassium nitrate, a chemical well-known to be used by terrorists to make bombs and used in rocket firing. This amount of it could have had disastrous consequences for Israel. This emphasizes the need for such checkpoints! Palestinian terrorism is a continuing threat to Israel and they will not be removed under the present circumstances..