Capt. Ariel Hovav

Mar 3, 2002 - Capt. Ariel Hovav, 25, of Eli was one of 10 soldiers and civilians killed when terrorists opened fire at an IDF roadblock north of Ofra in Samaria.

Shortly after 6:30 on Sunday morning, a Palestinian sniper opened fired at an army roadblock 1.5 kilometers north of Ofra on the Ramallah-Nablus road from his carbine, killing 10 soldiers and civilians and wounding four, before escaping unharmed. With his first shots, the gunman killed the three soldiers deployed behind concrete blocks surrounding the roadblock. Soldiers sleeping in the adjacent building were alerted by the gunfire and raced out to the roadblock, only to be shot dead. Also killed were civilians and soldiers who arrived by car at the roadblock.

Capt. Ariel Hovav, a paratroop officer in the regular army, was due to command a unit of basic trainees in the paratroop brigade and was on his way to a training session at the brigade headquarters. He arrived at the roadblock in a civilian vehicle and was shot when he got out of the car to try identifying the source of fire.

Before being recruited into the army, Ariel served as a counselor in the Bnei Akiva youth movement. He and his wife Naama lived in Eli with their 3-month-old son Elad-Yosef.

Capt. Ariel Hovav was buried in Elkana, where he lived with his parents as a child. He is survived by his wife and son, his parents Nissim and Heftziba, and three siblings.