Sgt Shlomo Adshina

Nov 1, 2000 - Sgt. Shlomo Adshina, 20 of Kibbutz Ze'elim was killed in a shooting incident in the El-Khader area, near Bethlehem.

The fighting broke out toward noon, when armed Palestinians, including uniformed policemen, opened fire at an IDF roadblock outside El-Khader. The shots came from several directions, including from Solomon's Pools across the road.

When heavy gunfire continued, the IDF sent in armored personnel carriers, tanks, and helicopter gunships, which fired at the Palestinian positions and began evacuating the wounded under fire. The evacuation of the wounded took close to an hour; the entire battle lasted for approximately five hours, ending at nightfall. Lt. David-Chen Cohen, who helped evacuate the wounded, was also killed.

Shlomo Adshina immigrated to Israel from Nigeria with his father three years ago. After he was drafted into the IDF and his father left the country, Shlomo was adopted by Maimon and Ruthie Bitan in Kibbutz Ze'elim. They described him as "a modest boy with a good heart, who took his duty to the army very seriously and knew how to estimate what was expected of him. In Ze'elim he found a warm welcoming house."