Six Israeli soldiers were gunned down and another was moderately wounded when Palestinian terrorists stormed an army roadblock at Ein Arik, west of Ramallah. The gunmen surprised the soldiers Tuesday night in a well-planned attack, killed four soldiers on duty and broke into nearby barracks to kill two more before escaping.

The names of the soldiers killed, members of a combat engineering unit, were released this morning:

	Lt. Moshe Eini, 21, from Petah Tikva.
	St.-Sgt. Benny Kikis, 20, from Carmiel.
	St.-Sgt. Mark Podolsky, 20, from Tel Aviv.
	St.-Sgt. Erez Turgeman, 20, from Jerusalem.
	St.-Sgt. Tamir Tsami, 21, from Kiryat Ono.
	St.-Sgt. Michael Hochsman, 21, from Haifa.

According to an initial army inquiry into the attack, two or three terrorists approached the roadblock shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, apparently from different directions. Eight soldiers were stationed at the post, having arrived at the site earlier in the evening to replace a different unit. At the time of the attack, four of the soldiers were on duty, another three were resting in the makeshift quarters nearby, and the eighth soldier was positioned on the barracks' roof.

The terrorists opened fire with Kalashnikov and M-16 rifles, killing the soldiers at the roadblock. They then stormed the barracks, spraying it with bullets and killing two soldiers inside, and moderately wounding another. The soldier on the roof was not hit by gunfire, and reportedly fired at the terrorists, but it is unclear if he managed to hit them.

Soldiers at a nearby IDF post heard the gunfire, and tried to contact the soldiers at the roadblock by radio. Army forces and emergency rescue teams quickly arrived at the scene, but were unable to resuscitate the soldiers or locate the assailants. A Kalashnikov rifle was found nearby, possibly a sign that one of the terrorists was injured.

The attack was "a cold-blooded massacre," medic Baruch Borer told Israeli television.

In a statement to al-Jazeera television, the Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack, though the Hamas later issued a parallel claim as well. Marwan Bargouti, Tanzim head in the West Bank, called the attack "one of our most successful operations." He said the attack was directed at the IDF roadblock, "one of those where [the soldiers] strip search [Palestinian] women and elderly."

Soldiers at roadblocks have become targets
A senior IDF officer told ynet, "The roadblocks are an unnecessary weak spot for the IDF. They do not provide the required security, they do not prevent the passage of terrorists, and they endanger the lives of the soldiers for no reason."

IDF soldiers have changed from "hunters to the hunted," Alex Fishman wrote in Yediot Aharonot today, describing soldiers at roadblocks as "sitting ducks at a shooting gallery." In such a situation, "suicide bombers are not necessary. All you have to do is approach a roadblock, and there are dozens of them, and start shooting."

On Friday, terrorists managed to surprise soldiers stationed at a roadblock in the village of Surda, north of Ramallah. Terrorist gunfire killed St.-Sgt. Lee Nahman Akunis and a second soldier was beaten and his gun stolen. One of the army's lessons from this attack was to ensure that there were always more than two soldiers on duty at roadblocks, Ha'aretz reported.

Brig. Gen Gershon Yitzhak, commander of IDF forces in the West Bank, has ordered the removal of most of army checkpoints there, Ha'aretz reported. The move was being made to reduce friction with the Palestinian population and to deny potential attacks on stationary targets, the paper said. The checkpoints are to be replaced by surprise checks on suspicious vehicles.

As the first wave of IDF retaliations to the Ein Arik attack struck Palestinian targets in Ramallah and Gaza City, Israel's security cabinet went into session to discuss additional operative military moves. Media sources reported that it was not yet clear if there would be a fundamental change in the government's policies in the wake of a bloody week, during which 17 Israelis, soldiers and civilians, were killed by Palestinian terror attacks.

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