IDF Chief Of Staff Halutz: 'Lieutenant Ori Binamo Paid With His Life In Foiling Palestinian Suicide Bomber' IDF Commanders: 'We Hate To Imagine What Would Have Happened If Suicide Bomber Had Blown Himself Up Among A Crowd Of Israeli Kids At Hanukkah Event' Security Officials: 'There Are Ten More Specific Terror Alerts At Present, But Palestinian Authority Does Nothing To Prevent Them'
During the holiday of Hanukkah, Israeli kids go on vacation and flock to many sites of entertainment. For Palestinian terrorists these are prime targets. At Tul Karem, one suicide bomber was intercepted with some fifteen kilos of explosives – as usual packed with pieces of steel to kill and maim as many Israelis as possible. Although the killer did not make it to the Tel Aviv, he still took a painful toll – the young IDF officer and his three men who stepped in to stop him.
‘The Israeli Lieutenant paid with his life to stop the Palestinian suicide bomber from reaching Israeli kids celebrating the holiday of Hanukkah’. That was the reaction of IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to the action of twenty-one year old Lieutenant Ori Binamo.
Thursday morning on the West Bank: Israeli security forces are alerted by a hot terror alert. A Palestinian suicide bomber is on the way to blow himself up at a Hanukkah happening for Israeli kids in the Tel Aviv area. The IDF immediately sets up surprise roadblocks to intercept the human bomb.
Nine-thirty near the town of Tulkarem : Lieutenant Ori Binamo and three of his soldiers stop a Palestinian taxi van for a security check. One of the occupants gets out of the vehicle wearing a suspicious coat. Under it he is strapped into a belt packed with some 15 kilos of explosives. The Israeli officer orders him to step forward and remove his coat. Realizing he is about to be arrested, the terrorist blows up the explosives killing Lieutenant Binamo instantly. The Palestinian taxi driver and one of the passengers, believed to be the killer’s ‘handler’, are also killed in the deafening explosion. The three IDF soldiers are wounded, one seriously. They and their commander prevented the homicide killer from blowing up his deadly bomb in a crowd of Israeli children celebrating Hanukkah in the Tel Aviv area. Hanukkah marks the miracle in the biblical rebellion of the Israelites against the Greeks. After they retook Jerusalem, there was only one jar of oil to kindle the candles in the purified Temple, sufficient for only one day. However, miraculously it lasted for eight. Today, many Israeli children are alive due to the heroic action of Lieutenant Binamo and his men.Their commanders said: ‘We hate to imagine what would have happened if the suicide bomber had made it to a crowd of Israeli kids celebrating Hanukkah’. They added the Palestinian Authority is still doing nothing to halt the terror attacks.
One day later, there are ten specific terror alerts about more attacks in the Palestinian pipeline. The Islamic Jihad is believed responsible for the Tulkarem bombing which again highlights the necessity for the targeted killing of suicide bombers and those who dispatch them. Unless, they are hit BEFORE the human bomb starts out on his mission, ‘at the very least’ the killer will blow up the Israeli soldiers or security personnel who intercept him before he reaches his prime target of a crowd of Israeli kids or a packed bus or restaurant. This was also the case in last month’s suicide bombing at the Netanya shopping center when a security guard was also blown up while apprehending the killer. This year, the Islamic Jihad alone has murdered 26 Israelis during the Palestinian ‘cease-fire’.
Back in Lieutenant Binamo’s command center, his girlfriend actually listened in to the whole incident. Lieutenant Annat Bing, a communications officer at the battalion headquarters, said she heard a soldier had been killed at the roadblock and she knew Ori was there. She immediately called him on his cell phone but he didn’t answer. They had an agreement he would always call her immediately if a soldier was killed. She went on to say: ‘A short time later, Ori’s mother called and heard me crying. I told her it was nothing, I had been arguing with one of my soldiers. I couldn’t tell her. But I felt, I just knew that Ori had been killed’. In Israel, news of a soldier being killed spreads like wildfire and naturally parents with children in combat units always have an ear to the ground. Ori’s father found out at work. He also telephoned his son on his cell phone but got no answer. Then he telephoned home to ask his wife if she had heard from Ori. She told him to come home immediately because she had spoken with Ori’s girlfriend who was crying. Lieutenant Ori Binamo is survived by three sisters.