by Avi Yellin
A Jewish couple and three children from the northern Samaria village of Itamar were found in their home stabbed to death Friday night. The perpetrators, Arab males still at large, are believed by security forces to be from the Shchem area.
It was made public Saturday evening that the five killed were Udi (36) and Ruth (35) Fogel, along with their children Yoav (11), Elad (3) and three-month-old Hadas.
An additional three children, Tamar (12), Roi (8) and two-year-old Yishai, managed to escape from the scene as the intruder killed their parents and siblings.
A Magen David Adom team that arrived at the scene late Friday night pronounced the five dead from knife inflicted wounds. The Initial Probe also showed that 3-year-old Elad was stabbed in the heart and that 3-month-old baby Hadas had her throat slashed.
The Fogel family, originally from the town of Netzarim in the Gaza region, were expelled from their home in 2005 when United States President George W. Bush forced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to forcibly remove all ethnic Jews from the coastal strip in what the media dubbed the “disengagement” plan.
Following disengagement, the Fogels were among a select group of evacuees to avoid being transferred to refugee camps and were instead relocated to the city of Ariel. Two years ago, the family moved to the nearby village of Itamar, where the father found work as a teacher.
Palestinian Authority media sources reported on Saturday that the Western-backed Fatah movement’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for Friday night’s attack.
Although Fatah forces regularly undergo special training from US military personnel, it is not yet know if the perpetrator of Friday’s killings had received American training.
In a televised speech Saturday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) demanded that the international community strongly condemn Friday’s attack.
“I noticed that some of the states who rushed to the [United Nations] Security Council to condemn Israel, the Jewish State, for planning to build a home somewhere are slow in issuing a harsh condemnation over the murder of Jewish babies,” he said, taking to task foreign diplomats who press Israel to outlaw Jewish construction in communities like Itamar but who were late in condemning Friday night’s murders.
Ariel Mayor Ron Nahman said in an interview with Israel Radio on Saturday that the mass delegitimization of Jewish life in Samaria and Judea is to blame for the attack.
Nahman stated that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad calling for a boycott of goods manufactured in local Jewish communities, as well as Israeli newspapers “separating settlers from Israelis living on the other side of the Green Line” were responsible for inciting the terrorists to carry out the killings.
Several media outlets have meanwhile reported that angry Jewish villagers throughout Israel’s heartland have taken to the streets to demonstrate the attack.
According to PA sources, the furious protests have led to Arab vehicles being bombarded with stones and the eruption of sporadic ethnic clashes in several locations.
A number of PA officials, including the governor of Shchem, have reportedly issued security warnings for Arabs to avoid driving on Road 60 for fear of angry Jewish mobs demonstrating along the highway.
