Comrades feared soldier from Karakal battalion may have been kidnapped after she failed to show up for count in gunbattle last Friday.
By Gili Cohen and Avi Issacharoff | Sep.24, 2012 | 12:45 PM |

Afemale combat soldier from the Israel Defense Forces' Karakal battalion patrol force that confronted a terror cell on the Israeli-Egyptian border Friday hid behind a bush for nearly an hour and did not open fire on the terrorists, the army’s ongoing investigation reportedly shows.

After the incident near Mount Harif, IDF soldiers had to search for their comrade, and for a time feared she had been kidnapped.

Israel Radio reported this morning that at a debriefing within the Sagi District Brigade, the soldier explained that she had been afraid to shoot at the terrorists, saying: “I had no chance against them.” Brigade commander Col. Guy Biton told her that she had not behaved as expected of a combat soldier.

Further details from the incident show that at 12:15 on Friday, the field forces reported that the Artillery Corps troops securing the border fence construction had come under fire, and within minutes a patrol force from the Karakal battalion arrived at the scene.

The force opened fire on the three terrorists and one of the female fighters who serves as a marksman stormed forward to attack at closer range. The IDF said the incident, during which Cpl. Netanel Yahalomi was killed, ended within 15 minutes with the three terrorists dead.

The investigation showed that for several long minutes there was fear that one of the female soldiers had been kidnapped, as she was not present for the count of forces after the incident. When the soldier was finally located, she was reprimanded by battalion officers. This angered a number of the combat troops, who defended her as an excellent soldier who needed support.

One military source confirmed the details of the report, but noted that the operational investigation of the incident was not yet complete. Another military source, however, said that the soldier had not been required to attack, and that no searches had been conducted for her as the media had reported.

The investigation also revealed that Yahalomi, the artillery man who was killed, was not wearing a helmet during the incident. Military regulations for that area do not require wearing a helmet at all times, rather only during operational activities such as patrols or ambushes. The investigation clarified that Yahalomi managed to fire at the terrorists before he was killed.

“Given that the incident is still being investigated by the commanders, we will not address partial reports from the incident that were obtained somehow or other," the IDF Spokesman said in response. "These parts do not reflect the incident in its entirety and do an injustice to the soldiers involved. When the investigation is complete, proper conclusions will be drawn.”

A jihadist group calling itself Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis took responsibility on Sunday for the attack.

In a statement, the group said the attack was in response to the video "The Innocence of Muslims," which mocked the prophet Mohammed. This same group claimed responsibility for the August 2011 attack at Ein Netafim along the border, in which eight Israelis were killed.

Visiting the site of the gun battle on Sunday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz praised the soldiers' response.

"We are fighters who are protecting our borders," said Gantz, who heard a description of the brief clash from one of the women combat soldiers in the Karakal battalion that was involved in it. "There are encounters and everyone who chooses to be a combat soldier knows that this type of thing can happen," Gantz said.

Since the Ein Netafim attack there have been at least eight violent incidents along the Egyptian border. Officers in the Southern Command say they cannot identify any common denominator among the attacks, but that it's clear that the activity surrounding construction of the security fence along the border, expected to be completed by the end of the year, is a draw for armed men.

"The border with Sinai will continue to challenge us," Gantz said on Sunday. "An enormous effort has been made over the past two years to close off the border, and it will be closed off, but even once it's closed, the threat will not stop."

Details of the investigation that emerged on Sunday indicated that the armed cell from the Sinai had at first hidden in a crevice from which IDF forces could not see them. From an analysis of the field conditions a military source told Haaretz that the militants must have known that a group of African migrants was in the area, about 150 meters from them.

Col. Biton, commander of the Sagi Brigade, who spoke to journalists on Saturday, said "the [armed] cell was not connected to the infiltrators. The terrorists operated totally apart from the infiltrators."