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Jordanian fires on Israeli schoolgirls; 7 killed
March 13, 1997
Web posted at: 9:18 a.m. EST (1418 GMT)NAHARAYIM, Jordan (CNN) -- A Jordanian military driver opened fire Thursday on Israeli schoolgirls who were on a field trip to a border observation post. The attack left at least seven children dead and six others injured, including two critically.
Witnesses said a bus had dropped the girls off at an observation post on the Jordan River island of Naharayim on the Israeli-Jordanian border.
The gunman chased the terrified seventh- and eighth-graders down a hill and changed ammunition clips before he was overpowered by Jordanian soldiers, authorities said.
Hospital sources in Jordan told CNN five people arrived dead at the hospital and two others were being operated on in critical condition. The five bodies, draped in white cloth shrouds, were later put on an Israeli military helicopter and flown to Israel.
Israeli police confirmed two were dead at an Israeli hospital. Four of the injured were treated in Israel, police said.
According to the spokesman for Jordanian government, the attacker was not a soldier, as was initially reported, but a military driver, who took a weapon from a colleague and threatened him with it before opening fire.
In Washington, Jordanian sources told CNN that the man was being debriefed by Jordanian security forces. The sources said so far it appears he was acting completely on his own -- that he just seems to have suddenly "cracked."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack "unacceptable."
"Violence ... should be banished from our midst," he told reporters. "We should all unite in the battle against those who would violate the basic human rights of children and trample all human rights into the dust."
U.S. President Clinton condemned the slayings and urged Middle East leaders to redouble their efforts toward peace and reconciliation.
"There is no justification or excuse for these acts," Clinton said in Washington.
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Motive unclear
The attack occurred just before noon. Naharayim, 55 miles (88 km) northeast of Tel Aviv, belongs to Jordan but Israelis have free access to the island under the 1994 peace accord.
The girls, ages 13 to 15, came from a school in the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh.
Teacher Rosa Chemy said the group of schoolgirls met with a Jordanian officer who checked their ID cards before they started a guided tour of the island.
"We are standing and listening and all of a sudden we hear shots," Chemy told Israel radio.
A girl named Oranit, who was shot in the hand, said: "I turned around and saw a soldier taking a magazine from his rifle and firing, and we ran to the hill. ... He shot me in the hand."
King Hussein of Jordan, who had warned Netanyahu in a Sunday letter that the Israeli government's decision to build new housing in East Jerusalem would provoke violence, cut short a visit to Spain and headed back to Jordan to lead an investigation into the attack.
Israeli government spokesman Moshe Fogel said he doubted the shooting was linked to current tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
"I don't want to link this outrageous terrorist attack with the overall relations with Jordan," Fogel said.
Related stories:
- Israeli housing project criticized at U.N. assembly - March 12, 1997
- Netanyahu accuses Palestinians of creating 'crisis' - March 11, 1997
- Arafat: Peace process must 'carry on,' despite housing dispute - March 4, 1997
- Clinton supports Arafat, questions Netanyahu's timing - March 3, 1997
Related sites:
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- Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles - State of Israel
- Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- The Jerusalem Post
- Islamic Association for Palestine
- ArabNet
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