RAMALLAH, 5 April 2008 — An aide to Israel’s internal security minister was shot and wounded by a Palestinian sniper yesterday while he and the minister were touring an observation point overlooking the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of other people were at the site at the time, Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter told Israeli news agencies, but no one else was hurt. The deputy director of Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Dr. Emile Hay, said Dichter’s personal assistant, Matti Gil, was in stable condition with gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen and pelvis.
Several Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the attack, including the military wing of Hamas, the militant offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party, and two little-known groups, the Army of the Nation and Protectors of the Homeland.
Dichter and Gil had taken a group of Canadian Jews to the overlook near the town of Sderot to familiarize them with the situation in Israeli communities bordering Gaza. A member of the group told Israel Radio that while Dichter was speaking, a 30-second volley of gunfire burst forth, wounding Gil.
