LAW missile ready for use found as police build checkpoints to apprehend suspects.
By YAAKOV KATZPublished: OCTOBER 18, 2005 23:16Advertisement
Police were investigating a shooting attack late Tuesday night on passing cars driving along Route 31 near the Hora Junction in the Negev on the edge of the southern Hebron Hills.
No one was injured in the attack but police did find a LAW missile, used often by criminals and terrorists, as well as rifle shell casings along the road. By press time police could not say for certain that the attack was of a nationalistic motive although officers did say that they were treating the shooting like a terror attack.
Israel Radio said the latest suspicions were that the background for the attack was criminal and not nationalist in nature.
Police set up roadblocks throughout the Negev in search of the assailants and closed off Route 31 in both directions. Police recently warned of an escalation in Palestinian terror attacks in the south due to the delay in the construction of the West Bank security barrier in the southern Hebron Hills area.
Southern District Police chief Cmdr. Uri Bar-Lev and Negev District Police chief Lt.-Cmdr. Nisso Shaham arrived at the scene of the shooting.
On Sunday, three people were killed in a drive-by shooting attack at the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem. The assailants fled into the Hebron Hills. Police have been on high alert since the beginning of the Succot holiday on Monday night and following the attack on Sunday the IDF imposed restrictions on Palestinian drivers in the West Bank.