Dan Employee Run Over at Bus Depot

For the first time in 20 years, the gazelle population in the southern Golan Heights has grown. Parks rangers counted 187 gazelles yesterday, compared to 167 last year. Nearly 5,000 gazelles were counted in the area in 1983, but the population has been declining by 15 to 20 percent annually since the 1990s. The Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority believes the downward trend was blocked thanks to its predator control policy, aimed at depriving wolves and jackals of food sources near human habitation. The theory is that plentiful food, especially dead birds, helped the gazelles' predators multiply. (Eli Ashkenazi)

A father from Hod Hasharon discovered a few days ago that his 17-year-old son had been taking money from his pants pockets at night. Curious as to where the money was going, the father followed his son to an apartment in Hod Hasharon, where he met up with two friends his age.The place turned out to be a brothel. The father informed Kfar Sava police, who raided the apartment and arrested a 24-year-old prostitute from Holon and her 30-year-old pimp from Hod Hasharon. The police raid involved an undercover detective who pretended to be a client and identified himself as a police officer only after money exchanged hands. (Yuval Azoulay)

A ceremony at Kibbutz Dafna in the Upper Galilee yesterday commemorated the ninth anniversary of the helicopter collision on February 4, 1997, in which 73 Israeli soldiers were killed on their way to southern Lebanon. Parents of the victims visited the crash sites yesterday and attended a conference at a nearby school on the subject of "The IDF - an army in the people's service." A memorial ceremony in the afternoon was attended by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. (Eli Ashkenazi)

A mother of eight, Awataf Khaled Amash, 38, of the village of Jisr al-Zarqa, was murdered yesterday morning some 100 meters from her home in what police are describing as an honor killing. The unknown killers reputedly had complaints about the conduct of a female relative. Investigators found that Amash had left her home early in the morning for her cleaning job, along with two of her daughters. She was shot close to her home and she died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The funeral is today. (David Ratner)

Four boys between 15 and 17 were charged yesterday in the Rehovot Juvenile Court with assaulting a 16-year-old boy. The attack occured Tuesday evening, while the boy was at a community center in Rehovot working on a school project. According to the charge sheet, one of the boys began making fun of the victim's accent. When he refused to stop, the victim hit the boy. Ten other boys then assaulted the victim, hitting him and breaking plastic chairs over his back and head. The assailants finally left when a police officer was called to the scene. (Yuval Azoulay)