The IDF stopped two 'Palestinians' driving an explosives-laden car at the Oranit Junction (not pictured) on Highway 5.
The white four-door hatchback with Palestinian plates was stopped at the
Oranit checkpoint on highway 5 northeast of Tel Aviv after it "drew the
suspicion of security guards" according to police. Inside the car, the
Defense Ministry said their security guards found a gas canister hooked
up with electric wires which they say they believe was an explosive
device.
The driver and passenger were taken from the car and arrested, and a bomb sapper robot was sent to dismantle the device.
After the incident, traffic on highway 5 near the scene was stopped in both directions, causing major gridlock.
The Defense Ministry said the driver admitted to planning a bombing and that both suspects are now in custody of police.
Highway 5 runs from Ariel to the coast, and once past the checkpoint (you know, one of the ones that Machsom Watch and their friends would like to close so that the 'poor Palestinians' can bring their bombs into Israel and murder us all) could have reached any point in Central Israel.
The car was stopped for a routine check at the checkpoint on Highway 5
that transverses Samaria from east to west, and leads directly into the
northern outskirts of Tel Aviv.
One of the officers noticed a bag between the driver's legs. Inside
it was a gas balloon, connected ot electric wires. He was taken to
interrogation and admitted, under initial questioning, that he had been
on his way to carry out an attack.
The checkpoint was closed to traffic and Highway 5 blocked in both directions, as sappers handled the bomb.
An interview with GOC Central Command Leitzan Balloon and the FBI fights terror
The Tribal Update brings you a revealing interview with the commanding
officer in Judea and Samaria and a glimpse into the FBI's investigation
into the Boston Marathon bomber.
On Tuesday, the IDF
stopped a Palestinian in the Jordan Valley who carried four improvised
explosives.
Near Bethlehem, Palestinians threw stones at soldiers,
lightly wounding one. They also threw stones at soldiers near
Ramallah.
Separately, in a raid on a Palestinian home in Hebron, the IDF
found a cache of weapons, including bullets and night vision
equipment.
“Our forces are working day and night,” Alon told Channel 2.
The IDF has arrested Palestinians who have harmed Israelis such as those who
threw stones at cars on Route 5 earlier this month, he said.
But he added
that still, “there are scores of intelligence reports of attempts to execute
terror attacks. I am happy that we ended 2012 and the last few months without
fatalities [from terror attacks] in the region of Judea and Samaria.”
The
IDF, Alon said, has also taken steps to help diffuse the tense situation in the
West Bank such as deporting to Gaza earlier this month the Palestinian prisoner
Ayman Sharawneh who had been on a hunger strike.
Alon who signed the
deportation order said, “on one hand we have to maintain our legitimacy, refrain
from rash moves and make arrests when necessary.” On the other hand, he said,
“we need to know how to dismantle land minds.”
The IDF, he said, seeks to
find a balance between these two objectives.
You have to wonder how much trouble Alon has keeping his job from his personal life. His wife is a member of Machsom Watch, a radical Leftist group that harasses IDF soldiers at checkpoints. Remember Ehud Olmert?
18-year old Hakim Awad, one of two 'Palestinians' who confessed to the murder of the Fogel family of Itamar in March, was convicted on Tuesday in a military court.
Despite the fact that Awad, a high school student, had confessed his part in the murder to security services and the court, Judge Lt-Colonel Menahem Lieberman had nevertheless decided to examine detailed evidence gathered by the prosecution, including forensic findings, in order to rule out that Awad had lied about his part in the crime for "glory".
Hakim Awad was also convicted of weapons offenses and various other security offenses.
...
The following account of the massacre is based on confessions and a reenactment of the attack by Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad, and a painstaking investigation led by the Shin Bet.
On the night of March 11, as the Fogel family were asleep in their home in Itamar, Hakim and Amjad Awad set out from the village of Awarta, two kilometers to the south, armed with knives, face masks, and a wire cutter.
The two planned to carry out the murders of Israelis days before, and had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain firearms from a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) representative in their village.
But the lack of guns did not dissuade the two from carrying out their plan to murder Israelis.
The youths set out from their village on foot, and after a kilometer, they cut a wire fence around Itamar, climbed over a forest hilltop, and reached a row of homes in the settlement.
They first entered a home adjacent to the Fogel residence, but found that nobody was home. They stole an M-16 rifle from the home, ammunition, and body armor, before walking on down the street.
The youths then saw the Fogel family residence, and spotted children sleeping through the window.
Immediately after entering the home, the youths set their knives on two young brothers sleeping in their beds, 4-year-old Elad and 11-year-old Yoav, killing them both.
They then entered the parents' bedroom, where they launched a knife attack on Ehud and Ruth Fogel. The parents fought back, attempting to fend off the attackers, but died of their stab wounds during the struggle.
The two then left the house, before hearing cries from three-month-old baby Hadas. Awoken by the attack, the baby lay in her crib in her parents' bedroom.
"They went back into the house and stabbed the baby to death to silence her cries," a security source said.
Two other children remained in the home, but were spared because Hakim and Amjad did not know of their presence. Amjad later told interrogators that he would have killed them too had he known that they were in the home.
After murdering five members of the family, the suspects walked back to the village, and told Hakim's uncle, PFLP member Salah Adin Awad, what they had done.
Salah hid their firearms, and instructed them to burn their bloody clothes.
The youths then resumed their daily lives, while Salah sent the weapons to a friend in Ramallah, Jad Avid, who hid the guns in his home.
The military court is expected to reconvene in September to hear arguments for sentencing Hakim Awad.
The second youth indicted in the massacre, Amjad Awad, will be tried separately, because he and Hakim have testified against each other and so cannot be tried together. According to a spokesperson for the IDF, Amjad Awad will be tried on August 16th.
There are three big problems here. One is that although they should get the death penalty, they won't, and they will likely be released in a 'prisoner exchange' at some point in the future. Second, the 'Palestinian Authority' will likely lionize them as heroes, naming camps and sports tournaments after them. And third, there are certain despicable Israelis who will feel sorry for the terrorists and their families (and on top of that have no sympathy for the victims or their surviving families).
May God avenge the blood of the Fogel family before our eyes.
If you have any doubts as to whether Israel's radical Left is simply misguided or outright traitorous, this ought to dispel them. Yaacov Lozowick describes some of the things that have been reported in the Hebrew media (only) about radical Leftist groups Machsom Watch and the Alternative Information Center visiting 'Palestinians' in Awarta whose homes were raided by the IDF searching for the murderers of the Fogel family in nearby Itamar. The woman on the right is the mother of one of the confessed murderers.
Hagit Beck, a member of Machsom Watch, describes on her blog how she and some other women went to visit "the 2 homes which had been ransacked". The second of the two was the home of Hakem Awad. (Isn't in interesting how in spite of all the horror, the reports all seem to focus on the same one or two homes?). The blog-post has been put up also on the Machsom Watch website: they're obviously proud of it. While in the house, Raya Yaron, the Machsom Watch spokeswoman, tried to comfort Shama Awad, mother of suspected murderer Hakem Awad, and wife of one of the men suspected for destroying the evidence. If proven in court, this will mean Shama Awad hid her murderer son from the police for most of a month, knowing fully what he had done. This is the woman Raya Yaron is embracing, and Hagit Beck is celebrating.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
