Palestinian fuel coordinators alerted Israelis manning the Nahal Oz fueling terminal that Palestinian terrorists had infiltrated Israel prior to the terror attack that left two Israeli civilians dead, Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council chief security officer Yoav Peled said Wednesday.
"It is in the Palestinians' interest that fuel continue to be transferred [from Israel] into the Gaza Strip, so they gave the Israeli side, the guys that worked there, information about the infiltration, and warned them," Peled said.
According to Peled, the drivers of the fuel trucks that were at the terminal during the time of the attack managed to flee unharmed, but two Israeli employees were murdered while attempting to escape. The two were shot at very close range while one of them was in a truck and the other was standing just outside the vehicle.
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Eye witnesses said that the four terrorists who infiltrated the terminal from the Gaza Strip had shot the two victims again, to confirm the kill, and riddled their dead bodies with bullets.
An eye witness who arrived at the scene minutes after the shooting said that the bodies of the two victims were mutilated and perforated by the shooters.
"The terrorists threw a hand grenade and sprayed them," the witness said. "It was a difficult sight to look at the two bodies. The terrorists came pretty close to them and shot them at close range."
The security officer of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, Rafi Babian, who arrived at the scene minutes after the infiltration, said "it is a clear Palestinian interest to receive fuel; they say they want to operate their hospital. Now I believe that the transfer of fuel will cease over the next few days."
The fuel transfer terminal is operated by the Israeli gasoline company Dor Alon. It operates in such a way that fuel trucks arrive on the Israeli side and unload their cargo into an underground pipeline that transfers the fuel into Palestinian territory.
The Israel Defense Forces estimate that the infiltration and subsequent terror attack had been planned for a long time and that its express objective was to kidnap an IDF soldier or an Israeli civilian to be used as a bargaining chip in later negotiations. The IDF base their estimation on the fact that a getaway
Earlier Wednesday, GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said that the objective of the terror attack was to kidnap IDF troops.
Galant's comments came after a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees declared that the abduction of a soldier was the shooting attack's primary purpose.
"It seems that terrorists intended to carry out a more severe attack, with the characteristics of an infiltration into a community or a kidnapping," Galant said.
The IDF later said that the fact that a getaway car was waiting for the terrorists on the Palestinian side was indicative of the gunmen's aim to abduct soldiers or civilians and drive them into Palestinian territory.
Galant praised the response of IDF troops to the attack, saying that "quick action by the forces brought about the retreat of the terrorists after a short amount of time. Unfortunately, two Israeli civilians were killed. During the combat we succeed in killing two terrorists."
Earlier Wednesday, a PRC spokesman Abu Mujahed said that, "the goal of the attack was to kidnap Israeli soldiers and break the siege on the Gaza Strip." Abu Mujahed was speaking in an interview with Al-Jazeera.
Abducted Israel Defense forces soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in a similar cross-border raid in June 2006.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmad said "the Palestinian fighters who participated in the operation returned safely to the Strip."
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, praised the attack as heroic and courageous. He said Hamas was not responsible but affirmed his group's support for "resistance."
