UPDATES BELOW. Four Israelis were killed as terrorists opened fire at an Israeli vehicle near Kiryat Arba in Hebron Tuesday evening.
Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene of the shooting and declared all four victims dead; two men aged 25 and 40 and two women aged 25 and 40. Paramedics added that one of the women may have been pregnant. All four are residents of Beit Hagai.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, “Shot were fired from close range at the vehicle at approximately 7:30 p.m. All four occupants of the vehicle were shot dead. The area has been cordoned off by Border Police, Judea and Samaria Police and the IDF. Security forces are searching for the attackers.”
The IDF has been on high alert in the West Bank out of fear that Palestinians would try to torpedo talks through increased attacks against Israelis.
Right-wing MKs quickly tied Tuesday evening’s terror attacks to the beginning of the negotiations in Washington. “The terror attack near Kiryat Arba is a reminder to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who his partners are,” said MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union). “The Likud government’s negotiations with the terrorist Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) are an energy boost to murderousness and terror. The blood of those harmed is upon the head of the Likud government.”
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) called on Netanyahu to freeze the nascent negotiations slated to begin on Thursday in Washington. “Now it is clear – the most violent period is when there are negotiations. Netanyahu must immediately freeze the talks and concentrate on promising peace for Israeli civilians.”
Ariel’s fellow party member MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) joined the calls for Netanyahu to immediately return to Israel and freeze the talks with the Palestinians. “Everyone who in recent months was a partner to the myth that Abu Mazen controlled the field must come to their senses and immediately suspend the activities to strengthen the Palestinian army that is being established with American assistance,” said Eldad. “Such a body is not capable of effectively combating Hamas, and we should not be surprised if its weapons are directed against us.”
Within the coalition, ministers were much less willing to consider freezing the talks, despite the deadly attack. “I do not think that we need to give a prize to the murders not to hold talks,” said Education Minister Gidon Sa’ar. “As we see an Israeli hand extended to peace, we see a murderous response on the part of Palestinians.”
Among rank-and-file Likud MKs, many of whom have taken more right-wing stands than those of the party’s ministers, the responses were more ambiguous regarding the future of the talks. “The terror organizations are passing on a clear message when they return to harming innocent Israeli civilians,” said MK Tzipi Hotovelly (Likud), one of the most right-wing members of the Likud Knesset faction. “This is a warning light to all those who believe that concessions of the Land of Israel will lead to a solution to the conflict. In the face of terror, one must respond with a strong hand without concessions.”
Updates.
Initial report: Four people were injured, some of them seriously, in a shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle at the Bani Naim junction in Gush Etzion, Magen David Adom reported.
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Palestinian security forces launched an initial investigation into the West bank shooting attack that killed four Israelis.
The circumstances of the incident are unknown at this time.
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The four Israelis reported seriously injured in a shooting attack near Hebron were killed, Magen David Adom reported. It was also reported that the four were members of the same family and included a pregnant woman.
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The West bank shooting attack claimed the lives of two men aged 25 and 40 and two women aged 25 and 40, one of whom was pregnant.
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A security source in the Palestinian Authority estimated that a Hamas cell carried out the West Bank shooting attack which killed four Israelis.
The source said Hamas was also responsible for the last attack in the Mount Hebron area.
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Abu Mujahad, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), told Ynet that the West Bank shooting attack in which four Israelis were killed was a message to the Palestinian negotiating team towards the resumption of direct talks with Israel.
“They should not have gone for this move without the support of the Palestinian people,” he said. “Our people still abide by resistance and do no believe in the fictitious talks scheduled to commence tomorrow. ”
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IDF forces are blocking several roads in the Hebron area in order to apprehend the team that carried out the terrorist attack which killed four Israelis Tuesday.
Military sources noted there was no advanced warning for this type of event.
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Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ynet Tuesday shooting attack was “not meant to foil direct peace talks, and said the negotiations had failed even before starting. This is a natural response by the Palestinian resistance to the enemy’s crimes, and is proof that despite the resistance’s persecution by the security services and despite Israel’s crimes, the Palestinians are capable of responding to these crimes.”
Barhoum refused to comment on the Palestinian security sources’ estimate that Hamas was behind the attack. “Things are not as they were described by the authority’s security forces.”
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Head of the Likud response team Knesset Member Ofir Akunis said the shooting attack near Hebron in which four Israelis were killed “once again proves that the Palestinians do not desire peace.”
“Even when Israel outstretches its hand to them, the Palestinians make every effort cut it off brutally. The whole world can see tonight that Israel desires peace and the Palestinians desire violence and terror.”
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Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen have decided to raise the police alertness level following the West Bank shooting attack.
Security forces fear additional attacks aiming to compromise the resumption of direct talks with the Palestinians.
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Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip praised a shooting that killed four Israelis in the West Bank on Tuesday but did not claim responsibility for the attack.
“Hamas praises the attack and regards it as a natural response to the crimes of the occupation,” said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, adding that the attack was proof “of a failure of security coordination” between Israel and the Palestinians.
[AP/Ynet/Ali Waked/Reuters/VidYid]