“They are shooting at us, they are shooting at us, come quick,” 17-year-old Omri screamed into his cellular phone as he stood at the Beit Haggai hitchhiking post.
On the other end of the line was Omri’s friend, 19, and with Omri, in the midst of the blood and the bullets, was that friend’s younger brother. The two were on their way to Beer Sheva for Shabbat.
The younger brother was moderately wounded, catching a bullet in his hand.
The 19-year-old told Ynet, “Omri, my cousin who called me, was confused and crying. He told me that the Palestinian car passed them, and when (the driver) saw the people at the hitchhiking post, he swung around and started shooting.”
Omri fell but was not wounded.
Beit Haggai residents said the post was relatively close to the settlement and that a soldier was posted only about 150 meters away.
Another disturbing phone call
Yochai Damari, a family friend of another youth, who was seriously wounded, said that the teen was on his way home to Otniel when the Palestinian car passed. The wounded youth managed to call his parents and tell them what had happened.
“He ran and hid from the shooting, but he was hit multiple times in the lower part of his body. While wounded, he called home and spoke to his parents.”
The boy’s father, who rushed to the hospital, asked for a prayer book as Shabbat was about to start and he wanted to pray for his son.