Bloomberg
Five Israelis Stabbed to Death in West Bank Settlement Home
March 12, 2011, 7:48 AM ESTBy Gwen Ackerman and Calev Ben-David
(Updates with Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade claim in fourth paragraph.)
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Soldiers are searching for at least one Palestinian after five members of an Israeli family were stabbed to death in their West Bank settlement home in the first fatal attack since August 2010, the army said.Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed the country’s United Nations delegation to file a “strong complaint” with the international body over the March 11 attack that Defense Minister Ehud Barak described as “most grave.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Palestinian Authority to help capture the assailants.
The parents of the family were killed along with three of their children, Central Commander Major General Avi Mizrahi told journalists. Channel 10 said the family’s oldest daughter managed to flee with two of her younger brothers. Army spokesman Peter Lerner said soldiers were searching for several assailants.
The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement, claimed credit for the killings. The attacker successfully avoided capture by Israeli security forces after carrying out the attack, it said in an e-mailed statement
Attack Condemned
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the attack, telling reporters in Ramallah that “there must be no doubt about our position on violence: we reject it completely and have always condemned it.”
The attack on the settlement of Itamar came three days after Netanyahu warned Jewish settlers against reacting violently to the dismantling of illegal outposts. Israel has said it plans to demolish all settler outposts built illegally on private Palestinian land by the end of 2011.
Danny Danon, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud party and deputy speaker parliament, blamed Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s “weak security policies” and the government’s lifting of roadblocks in the West Bank for the attack.
“I call on the defense minister to deal with the security of Israeli citizens instead of delusional political initiatives,” Danon said in a phone interview. “If we have to choose between the comfort of the Palestinians and Jewish lives, I will choose Jewish lives.”
The Itamar attack was the first since August 2010, when gunmen fired from a vehicle and killed four Israelis, an army spokeswoman said, speaking anonymously according to regulation.
‘Despicable Murder’
“Israel won’t go on as usual after this despicable murder and will act with resoluteness to protect the security of its citizens as well as to punish the murderers,” Netanyahu said in a text message from his office today.
There was no immediate response from the Palestinian Authority to Netanyahu’s call for help in finding the perpetrators of the attack.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been stalled since September, when Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month partial construction freeze in West Bank settlements. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not resume negotiations until all building is halted.
Israel has built about 120 settlements in the West Bank since the late 1960s. Another 100 smaller settlements, which Israel calls outposts, were built without government authorization during the past decade.
--Editors: Mike Harrison, Michael Shanahan
To contact the reporter on this story: Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at cbendavid@bloomberg.net; Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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