- Negev desert road ambush
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Negev desert road ambush 
The attack siteLocation Highway 25 in Southern Israel Date October 4, 1956 Attack type Ambush, Shooting attack Death(s) 5 Injured 1 Perpetrator(s) Palestinian Fedayeen squad The Negev desert road ambush was a guerilla attack which occurred, on Thursday, 4 October 1956
Contents
The attack
During the afternoon of 4 October 1956, a squad of 10 armed Palestinian Fedayeen militants infiltrated Israel from Jordan. In broad daylight, the militants swooped down on two jeeps on the Sodom–Beer Sheva road (Highway 25), which were traveling on the road section which goes through the southern part of the Dead Sea, 7 miles west of the Jordanian border with Israel. The vehicle were carrying employees of the Solel Boneh company.
The militants began by attacking the first vehicle with machine gun fire, kill all of the four passengers in the car. Afterwards the militants attacked the second vehicle. One of the passengers in the second car jumped out of the car in an attempt to escape the militants and save his life. The militants killed him as well with machine-gun fire.
Only one person, an American engineer whom was driving the second car, managed to escape the incident.
Fatalities
- Gabriel Benjamin Dahan (b. 1931)[1]
- Ephraim Waldman (b. 1907)[2]
- Arie Lahav (b. 1921)[3]
- Jacob Lustig (b. 1916)[4]
Aftermath
The squad members were arrested on their return to Jordan by a Jordanian police force. Shortly thereafter, King Hussein of Jordan ordered the release of the assailants.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman blamed the killings on a "well trained and organized group from Jordan." [5] He also stated that the incident "shows a continuation of Jordan's policy of aggression and border harassment". [6]
Operation Samaria
As a result, Israel made a decision to of retaliate in response to Negev desert road ambush and to an attack which happened on October 4 in which infiltrators from Jordan killed two Israeli laborers in an orchard near Even Yehuda and cut off their ears. On October 10 The Israeli military conducted a counter attack codenamed Operation Samaria in which the IDF attacked the Qalqilya police station at the Tegart fort. After a fierce battle the fort was blown up. 18 IDF soldiers died in the operation and 68 were injured. About 88 Jordanians were killed and 15 were wounded.
References
External links
- Israel Reports Five Slayings. Arabs Are Accused - published on Milwaukee Journal on October 5, 1956
Prominent terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict – the 1950s 1953 Yehud attack (October 12)1954 Ma'ale Akrabim massacre (March 17)1955 Beit Hanan attack (August 29)1956 Shafir shooting attack (April 11) – Eilat bus ambush (August 16) – Ein Ofarim killings (September 12) – Ramat Rachel shooting attack (September 23) Negev desert road ambush (October 4)Categories:- 1956 in Israel
- Terrorist incidents in 1956
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