Anti-film reaction claims Israeli victim
THE terror attack on the Egyptian border that claimed the life of a 20-year-old Israeli soldier was carried out in revenge for the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims, which the group responsible claims was produced with Jewish help.
Netanel Yahalomi was shot dead last Friday while he and his patrol were giving water to African refugees.
Three terrorists, armed with rifles, grenades and a suicide belt, lay in wait for the soldiers to approach before they started shooting.
They themselves were killed in an ensuing firefight.
The terror group Ansar Beit al-Maqdes said on Sunday it had carried out the attack. The group claimed it was in revenge for the controversial film, which has sparked outrage in the Muslim world over its depiction of the prophet Muhammad.
In a statement posted online, the group claimed it was behind the deadly attack.
The statement said: “After finding out that Jews were involved in this matter, are motivating the hostile group of foreign pigs [the film’s producers], took part in the film’s production and encouraged this shameful crime, and because protecting the prophet’s honour is one of our duties, your brothers from the Ansar Beit al-Maqdes organisation decided to punish the Jews for their heinous crimes”.
The group, also known as Ansar Jerusalem, has previously claimed responsibility for blowing up an Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel and for rocket attacks on Eilat.
Yahalomi, who was posthumously promoted to the rank of corporal, was remembered by his sister Avital as “a smart and successful guy” who “helped everyone in whichever way he could”. She added, “He went to defend the state and land. That is what he fought and was killed for. He died so we could live here. It was not an unnecessary death. God will give us the power to cope.”
Extending his condolences to the family during the Sunday cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the attack “underscores the importance of constructing a border fence”.
“Without a fence,” he said, “there will be more terror attacks”.
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