It was October 12, 2000 when Aziz Salha was photographed in Ramallah, in the West Bank, with his hands dripping with blood, raised high and pointing towards an enraged crowd to incite them.
That blood belonged to two Israeli reserve soldiers, who had just been beaten, stabbed and lynched in a local police station , not far from the headquarters of then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Since that day, Salha had become a sort of symbol of the second Intifada , but today Israel finally managed to eliminate him, with an air raid in the center of the Gaza Strip.
The IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that they had targeted Salha with a bombing in Deir al-Balah. They stressed that, in addition to the horrific incident in Ramallah, Salha had also participated in several terrorist attacks in the West Bank in recent years.
On that day in October 2000, the two soldiers, Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz, ended up in Ramallah by mistake, without realizing it. They were stopped at a checkpoint and then taken to a police station. The news spread quickly and within a short time a screaming crowd gathered in front of the building, where many people also managed to enter, apparently without too much difficulty. The two Israelis were mercilessly massacred and literally torn to pieces.
Among them was Salha, who looked out the window and showed his blood-stained hands like a trophy, as well as his face transfigured by hatred and violence. Eight months later, the Israeli newspapers published that very photo on their front pages, alongside another, deliberately similar, in which Salha himself was seen with his hands raised again, but blocked by handcuffs: he had been arrested by Israel, which then sentenced him to life in prison.
“We were crazy at the sight of the blood. I entered the room and saw an Israeli soldier lying on the floor in front of the door,” Salha later said. “I went closer and saw a knife stuck in his back. I took it and stabbed him two or three more times while others in the room continued to kick him.”
Salha was released in 2011 as part of a deal that freed 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Among them, in addition to Salha and 280 others serving life sentences, was Yayha Sinwar, the current unstoppable leader of Hamas.
(Unioneonline/D)
