Israel Matzav

More details on Itamar terror attack

Here are some more details about the terror attack in Itamar. The picture is Elad Fogel HY"D (May God avenge his blood), age 4, who was one of the victims.

Hamas has issued a statement declaring that it had nothing to do with this terror attack. This is a bit strange since no one said that Hamas did it until now.

The victims were Udi Fogel, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4 and Hadas, 3 months. There were two other children in another room whom the terrorists missed - possibly because the parents fought with the terrorists. The oldest child - a 12-year old daughter - was not at home. The family was expelled from Gush Katif in Gaza in 2005, and moved to Itamar. More on the victims later in this post.

Although Abu Bluff and Salam Fayyad both condemned the attack, they did not use the word terror. They condemned the atmosphere of violence.

In an earlier report, Israel Radio said that the General Security Service had information about a possible terror attack, which was not passed on to the army. There is now an investigation into why. Israel Radio is now saying that there was a notice of a break in the fence around the town, which was not reported to the army and the terrorists were likely wandering around the town for several hours.

Here are some more details I wanted to give you:

In a statement released by his office, Abbas "stressed his rejection and condemnation of all violence directed against civilians, regardless of who was behind it or the reason for it.”

Abbas added that "violence produces violence and what is needed is to speed up a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict.”

Note what's missing: A condemnation of a terror attack. Sounds remarkably like Arafat, doesn't he? Here's more. This will really tick you off.

PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said that his ministry condemned “any act that targets civilians, regardless of their identity.”

He said that the ministry condemns what the killing of Israelis by “people whose identity remains unknown.”

Al-Malki pointed out that Itamar was built on lands belonging to Nablus.

“The killing of an infant and the slaughtering of people in this way was never carried out by any Palestinians for national motives or revenge,” he added. “This puts a question mark over the swift accusation made by the Israeli side – to the effect that Palestinians had carried out the attack.”

The PA foreign minister, said, however, that in any case the attack does not benefit the Palestinian national struggle and the “resistance.” Such attacks, he stressed, are also harmful to the Palestinians’ political and diplomatic efforts in the international arena.

I won't write what I'm thinking now. You can all imagine. I just hope the murderers are caught by Israelis and not by 'Palestinians.'

Hours after the attack, PA security services released a senior Hamas operative who had been held in Palestinian prison for four months.

The man, Wajdi Abdel Rahim Taha, was released because he had gone on hunger strike and there was fear for his life, a PA security source said, adding that Taha had not been involved in violence.

“He’s a political activist,” the source said. “He has been arrested for questioning several times in the past. Before that he was in an Israeli jail.”

Here's a little more about the victims:

The children's grandfather, Haim Fogel, explained what happened on the night of the attack:

"We got the bad news on the terror attack at 3 in the morning from the local Naveh Tzuf emergency team, led by Rabbi Yonatan Balas. He took us to Udi's house in Itamar, we saw the horrible murder scene.

"The last phone call was yesterday, on Sabbath eve as usual. Udi spoke with me and with Tzila my wife as well as with Matan and Michal, his brother and sister. Just last week after the Sabbath we were at their place in Itamar and we ate in celebration of the new month Adar.

Neveh Tzuf is close to Itamar.

The funeral is Sunday at Jerusalem's Har HeMenuchot. I suspect I know where they're going.

But the IDF's misplaced priorities involve destroying tents in Gilad's Farm and taking down roadblocks to keep Hussein and Hillary happy (I won't write what I'm thinking about the current occupant of the White House right now either).

I'd better stop or I'll be too angry to sleep tonight. I'll go release some comments instead.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Gaza expulsion, Itamar, Palestinian terrorists, Riad al-Malki

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:17 PM