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Wife of lynched Israeli soldier spoke to husband`s killer
Israeli Hani Avrahami phoned her husband to check that he was safe as he travelled through the West Bank on the way to the army base in which he served as a reserve soldier. But instead his killer answered the call.
Israeli Hani Avrahami phoned her husband to check that he was safe as he travelled through the West Bank on the way to the army base in which he served as a reserve soldier. But instead his killer answered the call.
"We are now slaughtering your husband," said the voice that answered Yossi Avrahami's mobile telephone.
A Palestinian mob set upon Yossi, a 38-year-old toy salesman, and fellow reservist Vadim Novesche, in the police station of the West Bank town of Ramallah on Thursday.
The town has been the scene of daily clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces during two weeks of violence that have killed at least 98 people, most of them Arabs.
Israel said that the two men had strayed into the Palestinian-ruled area and had been taken into the police station after a fatal wrong turn brought them to a Palestinian roadblock.
Israeli television relayed stark images throughout Thursday of hordes of jeering Palestinians who gathered outside the station where they heard that Israeli soldiers were being held, and then entered the building.
One protester was clearly visible through a window as he swung at something out of sight beneath him.
Suddenly, the body of one of the Israelis fell headfirst from the window into shrubbery below and into the waiting mob that set upon the corpse with sticks, knives and their feet. One Palestinian pounded the body with a ripped-out window frame.
Major-General Giora Eiland, Israeli army chief of operations, said that one of the soldiers was still alive when he was dragged through Ramallah's main street tied to a car. Army officials said that the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.
Bureau Report