Israeli soldier phoned wife before gun death

An Israeli soldier under gunfire called his wife on a mobile phone and assured her he was fine.

Moments later he was shot dead as his unit pursued gunmen along the border with Jordan.

Israeli newspapers today published accounts of the final frantic phone conversation, as it was related by relatives of reserve Sergeant Michael Sitbon, 23, and his wife, Michal.

‘‘Don’t worry. I can’t talk. We’re under fire. I’ll call you back,’’ Sitbon told his wife.

He phoned his wife back a few minutes later and assured her: ‘‘Everything is quiet and all right. We have one casualty. We are looking for a terrorist cell. I’ll call you back,’’ the combat medic had said.

Some moments later he was shot and killed as he treated one of the wounded.

Just after daybreak on Tuesday, gunmen in Jordan opened fire on a routine Israeli border patrol near an area leased from Jordan by Israeli farmers, wounding two Israeli soldiers.

Israel rushed in reinforcements. Helicopters swept the area with machine-gun fire, and plumes of smoke rose from the heavily-wooded border area as Israelis looked for the gunmen.

In the exchange of fire, Sitbon was killed. Later, Israeli soldiers found the bodies of two armed assailants, the army said. It was unclear who they were.

Sitbon’s reserve tour began on December 9 and was to have finished next week.