Samaria Itamar attack kills 5 Jews (16 page compilation)

2011 (-) !!!! ITAMAR ATTACK - Five Israelis murdered by Palestianian terrorists [eng] compilation – 8Jun11 – 1/16

2011 ■ JEWS & ARABS IN SAMARIA

Itamar Murders Palestinians stab Jewish couple, 3 kids – including baby – to death

Fogel family stabbed to death in Itamar mfa.gov.il, 11 Mar 2011

From top:

father Udi Fogel, mother Ruth, son Yoav, daugh-ter Elad and baby Ha-das.

At least one terrorist infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Itamar, southeast of Nablus, late Friday night (11 March) and stabbed to death Udi (36) and Ruth (35) Fogel, and their children Yoav (11), Elad (4), and 3-month-old Hadas. The killings occurred shortly after 10 p.m., when one or two attackers jumped the fence that surrounds Itamar and broke into the home of Ruth and Udi Fogel. The attackers went from room to room, first stabbing the parents and their 3-month-old baby girl, Hadas. They proceeded to the next room where they killed the two sleeping boys, Elad, 4, and Yoav, 11.

Two other boys – Ro'ie, 8 and Yishai, 2 – were sleeping in another room and were not attacked.

The family's oldest child, 12-year-old Tamar, was out of the house at the time and alerted neighbors when no one ope-ned the door for her.

The IDF continues to search for the ter-rorists who carried out the murder of the Fogel family. ■

Two Palestinians stab to death five members of Israeli family at Itamar, West Bank DEBKAfile Special Report March 12, 2011

At least two Palestinians armed with knives stabbed the mother, father and three of the children, aged, 11, three and a baby of a month in their sleep at Itamar, south of Nablus early Saturday. Two small children were not attacked. Their sister aged 12 found them when she returned home at 12:30 and called for help. Magen David Adom paramed-ics could only confirm the five deaths.

The terrorists had broken through the electronic fence guarding the settlement without setting off an alarm.

Military and police units fanned out to hunt the perpetrators and set up check-points. Hamas websites hailed the mur-der as a «heroic operation,» without tak-ing responsibility.

This attack is the first of its kind in years. Hamas Websites hailed the mur-der as «heroic,» without taking respon-sibility.

DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources re-port: There were no terror alerts prior to the attack although Hamas networks had been known to be regrouping in Judea and Samaria for the purpose of attacking and kidnapping Israelis on both sides of the Green Line. Several Palestinians were recently detained at the few re-maining West Bank checkposts carrying pipe bombs, knives and fire bombs. Nonetheless the military did not rec-

ommend putting any of the checkposts back even though the Palestinian Au-thority's security services had slowed down their counter-terror cooperation with Israel, therefore failing to keep their side of the bargain for the removal of the checkposts.

For more than a year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Min-ister Ehud Barak acceded to relentless US and European pressure to grant West Bank Palestinians almost unrestricted freedom of movement and generous aid for their economic development as a means of persuading PA chairman Mah-moud Abbas to return to the negotiating table. This policy failed in its purpose while leaving Israelis vulnerable once again to terrorist attacks.

Israel's government military policy makers have refrained from redeploying the Israeli military to compensate for declining the Palestinian Authority's counter terror activity, which has been a concomitant of the rising unrest in the Arab world, especially in Egypt. Israeli queries on this to the Americans and British officers running the Palestinian security services have gone unanswered.

Because Palestinian traffic between Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south is to all intents and purposes un-monitored, the Israeli military is forced to fall back on intelligence informants as its only tool for preventing terrorist attacks. The result was seen tragically in Itamar Saturday morning. ■

Horror in Samaria: Terrorist murders family of 5 by Yair Altman, 12 March 2011, Ynetnews

Horror in Samaria: A terrorist infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Itamar, southeast of Nablus, early Saturday and stabbed five family members to death.

The shocking attack occurred around 1 am as the terrorist entered the family home and murdered three children aged 11, 3, and a baby girl along with their


parents. The victims were apparently sleeping as the killer came in.

Itamar residents reported that shots were heard in the area; the terrorist managed to flee the scene.

Three other children at the home, a 12-year-old girl and her two brothers, aged 6 and 2, were able to escape to a nearby house and inform their neighbors of the attack.

Ambulance in Itamar (Photo: Ido Erez)

The terrorist who carried out the massa-cre cut the fence surrounding Itamar and entered the home of the victims through the window, an initial probe of the mur-der showed. Authorities could not im-mediately discount the possibility that more than one attacker was involved in the murder.

'Toys next to pools of blood'

Following an initial report of the inci-dent, large IDF and police forces rushed to the site. The Air Force also joined the effort to track down the terrorist, de-ploying numerous aircraft in the area. The night's sky was lit up with flares, as special IDF and police forces were called in to assist in the manhunt.

The IDF Spokesman's Office said «troops are scouring the area in search of the suspect. The IDF is performing inspections at all crossing points set up in the region.»

Magen David Adom ambulance service teams pronounced the victims dead at the scene. MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said the ambulance service got a call around 1 am and dispatched large teams of paramedics to the area.

«When rescue forces entered the house they encountered a very difficult sight… There were five people there who were hurt. We could do nothing but pro-nounce them dead,» he said.

Paramedic Kabaha Muayua was among the first responders at the site and de-scribed the horrific scene he encoun-tered.

«We could not help the first four stab victims. Following an inspection of the scene I spotted an infant of about three who still had a pulse. We engaged in lengthy resuscitation efforts but had to pronounce him dead,» he said. «The

murder scene was shocking. Kids' toys right next to pools of blood.»

Paramedic Gil Moscowitz, who serves as MDA's director of operations, said teams dispatched to the home discov-ered «parents and three children who were brutally murdered.»

«The parents were lying next to each other in their room…we found three bodies in the master bedroom; the two parents and a baby,» he said.

'Government must back settlers'

Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan, who arrived at the site, appeared shocked by the brutal attack.

«This is no doubt one of the most terri-ble attacks in recent years,» he told the reporters on hand.

«Words cannot describe the extent of the horror and pain,» he said. «Those tempted to think that the Palestinians ceased their acts of murder see that they do not shy away from any tactic and any Jewish victims, regardless of how young they are.»

«The time has come for the government to regain its senses and start backing up the settlement enterprise, which remains vulnerable on the frontlines,» he said.

The settlement of Itamar, which is sur-rounded by Palestinian villages, has been the site of murderous attacks in the past. In June of 2002, a terrorist entered the community and opened fire, killing Rachel Shabo and three of her seven children, Neriya, Tzvika, and Avishai. Yossi Twito, who commanded the local security team at the settlement, was also shot to death in the attack. ■

Five Israelis murdered by Palestinians at Itamar were Gaza evacuees DEBKAfile Special Report March 12, 2011

The five members of the Israeli family murdered at Itamar on the West Bank, Friday night, March 11, have been iden-tified as Udi Vogel, 38, the father; his wife Ruth Vogel, 35, their sons Yoav, 11 and Elad, 3 and their four-month old daughter Hadas. The three children who survived are Roi, 8, Yishai, 2 and their sister Tamar, aged 12, who found the victims when she arrived home later that night.

The family moved to Itamar after Jew-ish communities were forcibly evicted from the Gaza Strip in 2007 as part of

the Sharon government's disengagement plan.

The terrorists had broken through the fence guarding the sleeping settlement and entered the Vogel home through an open window without raising an alarm.

Military and police units fanned out to hunt the perpetrators and set up check-points. Hamas websites hailed the mur-der as a «heroic operation,» without tak-ing responsibility.

This attack is the first of its kind in years. Hamas Websites hailed the mur-der as «heroic,» without taking respon-sibility.

DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources re-port: There were no terror alerts prior to the attack although Hamas networks had been known to be regrouping in Judea and Samaria for the purpose of attacking and kidnapping Israelis on both sides of the Green Line. Several Palestinians were recently detained at the few re-maining West Bank checkposts carrying pipe bombs, knives and fire bombs. Nonetheless the military did not rec-ommend putting any of the checkposts back even though the Palestinian Au-thority's security services had slowed down their counter-terror cooperation with Israel, therefore failing to keep their side of the bargain for the removal of the checkposts.

IDF troops near Itamar (Photo: Ido Erez)

For more than a year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Min-ister Ehud Barak acceded to relentless US and European pressure to grant West Bank Palestinians almost unrestricted freedom of movement and generous aid for their economic development as a means of persuading PA chairman Mah-moud Abbas to return to the negotiating table. This policy failed in its purpose while leaving Israelis vulnerable once again to terrorist attacks.

Israel's government military policy makers have refrained from redeploying the Israeli military to compensate for declining the Palestinian Authority's counter terror activity, which has been a concomitant of the rising unrest in the Arab world, especially in Egypt. Israeli queries on this to the Americans and


British officers running the Palestinian security services have gone unanswered.

Because Palestinian traffic between Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south is to all intents and purposes un-monitored, the Israeli military is forced to fall back on intelligence informants as its only tool for preventing terrorist attacks. The result was seen tragically in Itamar Saturday morning. ■

'Daughter yelled in horror, something terrible happened' By JPOST 13mar11

Fogel family neighbor gives eyewitness account to Army Radio after entering family's home in Itamar, says «did not think it was terrorist attack.»

Jacob Cohen, a neighbor of the Fogel family in the Itamar settlement, was the first person to come to the family's home after the stabbing, he told Army Radio Sunday morning.

Twelve-year-old Tamar Fogel, who is friends with Cohen's daughter, spent the evening with her neighbors at the time of the murder.

«The couple's daughter left our home, and when she tried to enter her house no one answered her. She heard her brother cry, so she came to call us,» Cohen re-called.

«The girls woke me up, I grabbed a weapon in case it was necessary, and when we got to the house we saw traces of mud everywhere, even on the couch itself.»

Cohen and Tamar Fogel saw through one of the house's windows that her seven-year-old brother was sleeping and woke him so he could open the door.

Cohen told Army Radio that after a dec-ade without similar events taking place, he did not think the attack was terrorist-related.

«At first I was ashamed to enter the family's home,» he said. «We did not think it was a terrorist attack, but when the daughter entered and screamed in horror, I realized something terrible had happened. I prepared my weapon, fired two bullets into the air, I searched the house and found the remaining children, the seven-year-old boy who opened the door, and the two-year-old who was in the parents' room.»

Fearing that the terrorist was still in the house, Cohen immediately took the children out and called for help.

The settlement's security forces and then the army came to the Fogel house at

around 1:00 am. Cohen said it was not clear why the terrorists chose the Fogel home for the attack. «There is no reason for terrorists to have chosen this house, it is not closer to the [fence] than other houses,» he told Army Radio.

«The incident is especially disturbing because Rabbi Udi is an officer in the army, and he probably could not defend himself on time due to the surprise of the attack.»

The surviving Fogel children were moved to their grandparents' home.

According to Cohen, the younger son said that the terrorists had skipped him because he was hidden under the blan-kets. ■

Attack probe: Security guards failed Alert dismissed as false alarm, IDF informed only hours later. Probe at advanced stage

YNET, 12mar11, Ron Ben-Yishai

IDF troops were dispatched to Itamar only three hours after the terrorist infil-tration into the West Bank community, despite an alert by the electronic fence surrounding the settlement.

In these critical hours, a terrorist or two were able to gain entry into a home in the community and stab five family members to death, including three chil-dren, the probe into the murder shows.

Following the shocking attack, IDF of-ficials fear an escalation and clashes across Judea and Samaria.

Ariel, Samaria.

The settlement of Itamar is equipped with a comprehensive defense system and saw no terror attacks since 2002. The system includes various fences and observation means that alert a central operations room manned by two civilian security officers at any given time.

In addition, the community is guarded by six civilian security guards, in addi-tion to IDF forces deployed just outside Itamar.

Friday night, an alert from the electronic fence was registered at the central op-

erations room, prompting a patroller to head to the site. However, he did not identify signs of infiltration and decided he was dealing with a false alarm.

The security guard also failed to dis-patch IDF troops who were stationed less than one kilometer away. The forces only rushed to the scene some three hours after the terrorist or terror-ists entered the community. An elec-tronic alert was apparently also regis-tered after the attackers left Itamar fol-lowing the murder.

Probe at advanced state

The probe into the brutal murder in Itamar is in a very advanced stage and has concluded that two terrorists appar-ently entered the community. The inves-tigation is being managed by the Shin Bet and IDF, without cooperating with Palestinian Authority security officials.

The probe, which got underway at 7 am Saturday, apparently bore fruit already. Some 20 people had been detained in connection with the attack.

Despite the close cooperation with the PA as of late, military officials decided not to join forces with the Palestinians in holding the probe, both because of the incident's sensitivity and based on operational considerations.

Security officials are now concerned about the prospect of escalation in Judea and Samaria, prompting the IDF to rein-force its presence in the region. Officials estimate that such escalation may follow «price tag» acts by radical settlers, as well as Palestinian retaliation to such actions.

Authorities also estimate that the attack was carried out by a local cell not di-rectly affiliated with Hamas or any other organization, and that the murder was motivated by growing friction with set-tlers, growing incitement against the settlements on the Palestinian street, and a desire to avenge «price tag» acts. ■

Hamas ordered five Israelis murdered following secret Islamist Khartoum parley They arrived too late. The killers had flown

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 12, 2011

Palestinian Hamas websites quickly hailed the murder of a mother, father and three of their children, aged, 11, three and a baby of a month, whose


throats were slashed in their sleep at Itamar, south of Nablus Friday night, March 11 as «a heroic operation.» The escape of at least two Palestinian killers long before the alarm was sounded after midnight was eased by the dismantling of most Israeli security checkpoints on the West Bank and slow military vigi-lance.

DEBKAfile's intelligence and counter-terror sources disclose that the Itamar attack was the first result of an Iran-funded secret conference in Khartoum last week of the heads of the national branches of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Arab world, at which a plan was charted for Hamas to launch a multi-casualty terrorist assaults against Israel on both sides of the Green Line – over and above missile attacks from the Gaza Strip in order to ignite the third Palestinian uprising (intifada). The Egyptian Brotherhood is the parent or-ganization of Hamas.

This decision was a facet of a compre-hensive plan drawn up in Khartoum for Brotherhood activists to fire up the up-risings in the various Arab countries. With Iranian backing and funding, the different branches resolved to coordi-nate operations for using the unrest to take control of Arab capitals

Iranian intelligence officers attending the conference used the occasion to set up direct contacts with Brotherhood leaders who came from Egypt, Iraq, Tu-nisia, Syria, Jordan, Great Britain. The Palestinian delegation representing Hamas-Gaza was headed by Mahmoud A-Zahar and Hamas-Damascus headed by Khaled Meshaal.

The plan for Hamas to revive terrorist on the West Bank and inside Israel was an important part of the Iranian-backed resolutions reached at the Khartoum conference.

DEBKAfile notes that not a single Arab government – not even Israel – pre-vented the Brotherhood and Hamas delegates from setting out for Khar-toum. No word of the conference was allowed to leak to the Israeli public and Israeli security authorities appear not to have adapted their practices to the deci-sions reached by the Islamists there.

This could explain why there was no prior terror alert for the Itamar killings or apparent IDF redeployment for an upsurge of multiple terrorist murders even though Hamas networks had been known to be regrouping in Judea and Samaria for the purpose of attacking and kidnapping Israelis on both sides of the Green Line. Several Palestinians were recently detained at the few remaining

West Bank checkpoints carrying pipe bombs, knives and fire bombs.

Despite appeals from West Bank Israeli community leaders, the military did not recommend putting any of the check-points back – even though the Palestin-ian Authority's security services had slowed down their counter-terror coop-eration and intelligence-sharing with Israel, therefore failing to keep their side of the bargain for the removal of the checkpoints.

For more than a year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Min-ister Ehud Barak acceded to relentless US and European pressure to grant West Bank Palestinians almost unrestricted freedom of movement and generous aid for their economic development as a means of persuading PA chairman Mah-moud Abbas to return to the negotiating table. This policy failed in its purpose while leaving Israelis vulnerable once again to terrorist attacks. None of these alarming developments were brought to public notice in Israel. Jerusalem is still trying to pretend that Egypt remains faithful to its 1979 peace treaty, whereas nothing of those relations appears to have survived the fall of Hosni Muba-rak. ■

Abbas' double game: He tips Fatah to quietly endorse Itamar murders Mahmoud Abbas wants to ride Arab uprisings bandwagon

DEBKAfile March 12, 2011

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mah-moud Abbas received a stern ticking-off when he called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Saturday night to condemn the savage murder Friday night by Palestinian terrorists of the par-ents and three small children of an Is-raeli family while they slept at their home at Itamar on the West Bank. The Prime Minister knew Abbas had quietly ordered heads of his Fatah organization to throw its support behind the atrocity – which was why Palestinian Prime Min-ister Salam Fayyad was careful earlier to denounce «violence by any quarter» only in general terms.

In his address to the nation Saturday night, Netanyahu accused Palestinian leaders of hypocritically mouthing peace slogans abroad while promoting anti-Israel incitation and propaganda on a daily basis in Palestinian schools and mosques. He warned that terrorists

would not be allowed to determine the settlement map.

DEBKAfile's sources report that the Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has been caught out playing a double game, which has yet to be fully clarified: Is he supporting an operation by the rival Islamist Hamas action so as to ride the Arab unrest galloping across the Middle East and boost his faltering prestige at home? Is he trying to stir up another Palestinian uprising (intifada)?

It would appear that Abu Mazen is op-portunistically hoping to exploit the Pal-estinian street's sympathy for the Arab uprisings and divert its anger over the corruption deeply entrenched in his re-gime by letting Fatah terrorists off the leash for a fresh wave of attacks on Is-rael that could fit the slogan of the Third Palestinian Uprising. Hamas adherents might even rally behind his leadership.

Israeli security chiefs fear that even if Abbas does not mean to let the violence go to those lengths, Fatah activists may take his sympathy for the Itamar outrage as the green light for more attacks. In the last two weeks, Palestinian organiza-tions and left-wing elements in Israel and aboard have been pushing for a Pal-estinian Day of Rage on Tuesday, March 15 and for two days on March 20-21 the following week, which coin-cide with the Jewish festival of Purim. Israel's army, intelligence and police have been placed on the highest level of preparedness for terrorist attacks, focus-ing on the West Bank, Jerusalem and mixed Jewish-Arab towns until after Purim. Security measures have also been clamped down on West Bank traf-fic in a major operation to net the kill-ers. Itamar has been declared a closed military zone. Saturday night saw angry Jewish settlers blocking and stoning Palestinian vehicles. ■

IDF hunting for perpetrators of brutal Itamar killings JP by Yaakov Katz, 13/03/2011

Parents, 3 children stabbed to death in their sleep; large forces deployed near Nablus to prevent settler-Palestinian clashes.

A mother, father and three of their chil-dren were stabbed to death late Friday night by at least one suspected terrorist who infiltrated the Itamar settlement southeast of Nablus.

The killings occurred shortly after 10 p.m., when one or two attackers jumped the fence that surrounds Itamar and


broke into the home of Ruth and Udi Fogel, aged 35 and 36, respectively. The attackers went room to room, stabbing the parents, a three-month-old girl, Ha-das, and two boys, Elad, three, and Yoav, 11.

Two other children – aged two and eight – were in a side room but were not at-tacked.

The family's oldest child, 12- year-old Tamar, was out of the house at the time.

The IDF immediately launched searches in nearby Arab villages as Palestinians reported that a faction of Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade had claimed responsi-bility.

Several dozen suspects were arrested in Awarta, Sanur and Zabada as soldiers conducted searches with the aid of un-manned aerial vehicles that provided surveillance from above.

As the attackers used knives rather than rifles or pistols, and because of other characteristics of the killings, the IDF believes it was not carried out by an or-ganized terrorist infrastructure but more likely was the work of one or two peo-ple who could, though, be affiliated with one of the larger Palestinian terrorist groups.

The army urged the settler community to demonstrate restraint in the coming days.

The IDF and the Israel Police deployed large forces in the area to prevent clashes between settlers and Palestini-ans.

The suspected terrorists infiltrated the settlement close to 9:30 p.m. but did not carry out the attack until around 10:15.

«The children were literally slaugh-tered,» an IDF officer said, describing the scene, including the children's toys spilled out on the floor and covered in blood. «This is one of the most brutal attacks we have ever seen.»

The IDF was in contact with Palestinian Authority security forces, but senior of-ficers said the army would not rely on the PA to catch the perpetrators.

«This attack is one of the worst attacks we have known in recent years and we will hunt down the terrorists until they are caught,» the officer said, noting that there had not been an infiltration into Itamar in almost eight years.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened top military and security chiefs on Sat-urday and urged them to take all neces-sary action to apprehend the killers.

«This is a horrible attack that makes my blood boil, but I have no doubt that the perpetrators will be captured,» Barak

said during a meeting with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin. «We need to do everything so security and quiet can re-turn to the area.»

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi expressed condolences follow-ing the attack.

«An entire family was killed by despi-cable and cowardly murderers who murdered children and parents for no reason,» he said.

Mizrahi hinted that the IDF had a lead on the identity of the terrorists: «We are in the midst of pursuing the terrorists and I believe we will catch them very soon,» he said.

The details of the investigation were covered by a gag order.

The Fogel family lived in Gush Katif. After the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, it moved to Ariel and then to Itamar. ■

IDF hunting for perpetrators of brutal Itamar killings JP by Yaakov Katz 13/03/2011

Parents, 3 children stabbed to death in their sleep; large forces deployed near Nablus to prevent settler-Palestinian clashes.

A mother, father and three of their chil-dren were stabbed to death late Friday night by at least one suspected terrorist who infiltrated the Itamar settlement southeast of Nablus.

The killings occurred shortly after 10 p.m., when one or two attackers jumped the fence that surrounds Itamar and broke into the home of Ruth and Udi Fogel, aged 35 and 36, respectively. The attackers went room to room, stabbing the parents, a three-month-old girl, Ha-das, and two boys, Elad, three, and Yoav, 11.

Two other children – aged two and eight – were in a side room but were not at-tacked.

The family's oldest child, 12- year-old Tamar, was out of the house at the time.

The IDF immediately launched searches in nearby Arab villages as Palestinians reported that a faction of Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade had claimed responsi-bility.

Several dozen suspects were arrested in Awarta, Sanur and Zabada as soldiers conducted searches with the aid of un-

manned aerial vehicles that provided surveillance from above.

As the attackers used knives rather than rifles or pistols, and because of other characteristics of the killings, the IDF believes it was not carried out by an or-ganized terrorist infrastructure but more likely was the work of one or two peo-ple who could, though, be affiliated with one of the larger Palestinian terrorist groups.

The army urged the settler community to demonstrate restraint in the coming days.

The IDF and the Israel Police deployed large forces in the area to prevent clashes between settlers and Palestini-ans.

The suspected terrorists infiltrated the settlement close to 9:30 p.m. but did not carry out the attack until around 10:15.

«The children were literally slaugh-tered,» an IDF officer said, describing the scene, including the children's toys spilled out on the floor and covered in blood. «This is one of the most brutal attacks we have ever seen.»

The IDF was in contact with Palestinian Authority security forces, but senior of-ficers said the army would not rely on the PA to catch the perpetrators.

«This attack is one of the worst attacks we have known in recent years and we will hunt down the terrorists until they are caught,» the officer said, noting that there had not been an infiltration into Itamar in almost eight years.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened top military and security chiefs on Sat-urday and urged them to take all neces-sary action to apprehend the killers.

«This is a horrible attack that makes my blood boil, but I have no doubt that the perpetrators will be captured,» Barak said during a meeting with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin. «We need to do everything so security and quiet can re-turn to the area.»

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi expressed condolences follow-ing the attack.

«An entire family was killed by despi-cable and cowardly murderers who murdered children and parents for no reason,» he said.

Mizrahi hinted that the IDF had a lead on the identity of the terrorists: «We are in the midst of pursuing the terrorists and I believe we will catch them very soon,» he said.


The details of the investigation were covered by a gag order.

The Fogel family lived in Gush Katif. After the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, it moved to Ariel and then to Itamar. ■

Ariel mayor: Delegitimization of settlements caused attack JPOST 12/03/2011

Ron Nachman says left-wing journalists, Palestinians incited Itamar terrorists ; Settlers reportedly attack houses in nearby villages.

Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman on Saturday blamed Palestinian and left-wing dele-gitimization of West Bank settlements for the Friday night Itamar terror attack in which five Israelis were killed. Nachman's comments came in an inter-view with Israel Radio.

Nachman stated that Palestinian Author-ity Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad call-ing for a boycott of goods manufactured in the settlements as well as Israeli newspapers «separating settlers from Israelis living on the other side of the Green Line» were responsible for incit-ing the terrorists to carry out the attack in Itamar.

National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau on Saturday said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was responsible for Friday's terror at-tack in Itamar because he allowed in-citement to violence against Israel in the PA's educational system.

«Behind the murderer of the family in Itamar stands Abu Mazen [Abbas], the ‹peace partner,› who founded the offi-cial educational system in the Palestin-ian Authority, which teaches hatred of Jews and presents child killers as role models,» Landau said in a statement.

Landau called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to stop presenting Abbas as a peace partner and to demand from the PA and the US that peaceful education in the Palestinian Authority be a precondition to any peace process.

Netanyahu also demanded that the Pal-estinian Authority «halt the incitement in the mosques and via the Palestinian Authority-controlled media.»

A statement from Netanyahu added that «a society that permits such wild in-citement is one that eventually brings about the murder of children.»

Palestinian sources reported on Saturday that a number of West Bank settlers at-tacked houses in the villages of Burin and Hawara, near Itamar.

According to the report, Palestinian eye witnesses said that between 30 and 40 settlers entered the houses in the Pales-tinian villages and then proceeded to hurl stones and glass bottles at them. ■

'Blue-and-white' operation to apprehend terrorists JP by Yaakov Katz 13/03/2011

Analysis: Due to the brutality by terror-ists in the murder of children, the IDF will not rely on anyone else as it hunts for those responsible.

In recent years, since the deployment of American-trained Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, the IDF has in many cases relied on the PA to arrest terror suspects, and sometimes even those known to have been behind at-tacks against Israel.

But the operation to apprehend the ter-rorists who murdered five members of the Fogel family as they slept in their beds in their home in Itamar on Friday night will be completely «blue-and-white.»

This time, due to the type of attack and the brutality it took to murder sleeping children, the IDF will not be relying on anyone else as it hunts for those respon-sible.

The attack in Itamar catches Israel three months into 2011, and after the quietest «security year» the country has experi-enced in a decade. In 2010, nine Israelis were killed in Palestinian terrorist at-tacks, compared to 15 in 2009 and close to 40 in the year before.

It also came after a year during which IDF commanders met close to 700 times with their Palestinian counterparts, co-ordinating security operations and the PA forces' deployment throughout the West Bank.

Just last month, the Central Command decided to remove the Hawara check-

point at the southern entrance to Nablus, just before the turnoff to Itamar, allow-ing free movement from northern Samaria to other parts of the West Bank.

On Saturday, the checkpoint was re-stored, at least for the time being.

The IDF does not plan on changing its current work relationship with the PA security establishment, and after the perpetrators behind the attack are caught, business will likely go back to usual as the sides continue to meet, co-ordinate operations and facilitate the US and European support of the PA.

The lull in terrorism in 2010 was a di-rect result of this coordination and the PA crackdown on Hamas and other ter-rorist groups in the West Bank – not a result of any newfound love for Zion-ism, but out of an understanding that if it is not done, Hamas will take over Ramallah as it took over Gaza in 2007.

The joint work with the PA and the IDF's ability to cut back on the number of operations inside Palestinian cities has allowed the military to also cut back, over the past year, the number of soldiers it maintains in the West Bank on a regular basis, reaching some of the lowest numbers since before the second intifada erupted in 2000.

The IDF did not have any specific intel-ligence regarding Friday's attack. It had, however, placed forces and settlement security teams on high alert in recent weeks amid fears of infiltrations, due to the increased tension and clashes be-tween settlers and Palestinians.

The assessment within the IDF is that the perpetrators acted alone and did not belong to an established terrorist organi-zation like Hamas or Islamic Jihad. They might be affiliated with one group or another, but their motive could be the growing tension with settlers, or the wave of delegitimization of Israel, and particularly the settlements, sweeping throughout the Palestinian cities and towns.

Despite the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and the violent rebellion in Libya, the West Bank has remained quiet. On Tuesday, this is expected to change, with Palestinians planning several mas-sive demonstrations to protest against Israel and in support of Fatah-Hamas unity. The IDF will need to be careful about how it responds both to Friday's attack and to the upcoming demonstra-tions; to prevent further escalation, it will also need to work to try and rein in the usual «price tag» settler retaliatory attacks.

Politically speaking, all eyes will be on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.


While he challenged the world on Sat-urday to unite in denouncing the attack in Itamar in strong and unequivocal terms, Netanyahu is said to be in the midst of writing a new groundbreaking diplomatic speech in which, some pre-dict, he will call for the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders.

The attack in Itamar could serve as Netanyahu's excuse for getting out of something he never wanted to do in the first place. ■

Barak: IDF's iron fist will land on Fogel murderers By JPOST 13/03/2011

Funerals start in Givat Shaul; Defense minister speaks at ceremony for fallen soldiers; Netanyahu blames PA incitement for terror attack.

The terrorist attack that left five family members dead in the settlement of Itamar over the weekend is a «painful reminder of the unbearable bloody price that we must pay in the struggle for sov-ereignty and rebirth of Israel in its land,» Defense Minister Ehud Barak told mourners on Sunday.

Speaking at a ceremony at Mt. Herzl for fallen soldiers whose resting places are unknown, the defense minister said he is confident that the «iron fist of the IDF and the Shin Bet will quickly land on the murderers.» They will be caught and brought to justice and made to pay, he added.

Ehud Barak Photo by: Marc Israel Sellem

Barak said that «Israel's security, its fu-ture and its borders will be designed and shaped by our decisions and not by murderous terrorism.» He continued, «Our hearts are with the orphans with-out a mother or father, and with all of the families.»

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet on Sunday that when he spoke with surviving members of the Fogel family, who were murdered over-night Friday in the settlement of Itamar, that he heard the children crying.

«Last night I spoke with Chaim Fogel and with Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai, the fathers of Udi and Ruthie Fogel, respec-tively, may their memories be blessed. I came to console them and I heard the crying of their young grandchildren who survived.»

Netanyahu added, «Mr. Prime Minister, may God give you the strength, under-standing, wisdom and bravery to defend the Israeli people, all of Israel's citizens, at this time.»

The prime minister also criticized the Palestinian Authority for what he called its incitement to terrorism. «Regrettably, we see the PA awarding scholarships to the families of murderers. We see that they name squares after terrorists who murdered dozens of Israelis. These do not jibe with education for peace.» ■

Yishai: 'We need 1,000 units for every person murdered' By JPOST 13/03/2011

Gov't approves new apartments in W. Bank blocs in wake of terrorist attack

Abbas says decision is «wrong and unacceptable.»

Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Sunday responded to the government's approval of hundreds of new housing units in the settlements following the terrorist attack in Itamar Saturday, saying: «I would not stop with 400 units, we need at least 1,000 new housing units for each person murdered.»

«After this terrible and shocking mur-der, nothing will comfort the families,» Yishai said. «The [Palestinian] Author-ity is raising a generation of murderers.»

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday also responded to the approval of set-tlement building, calling it «wrong and unacceptable.»

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, Palestinian Au-thority President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman, said that «the atmosphere in which such a decision is made does not help, but only creates problems.» He added, «Peace requires courageous deci-sions.»

Chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria Danny Dayan on Sunday criticized the government's decision to approve the building permits, saying that it shouldn't have happened only after the Fogel fam-ily was murdered.

Photo by: Laszlo Balogh / Reuters

«The government's decision is a small move in the right direction, given that construction in Yehuda and Shomron stands at a negative index of thousands of housing units,» he said.

Dayan added, «The government should approve additional construction and of course, should finally approve the mas-ter plan for Itamar and the building of a new neighborhood in the name of those murdered.»

«This unfortunately is only the first time since the formation of the second Netanyahu government that new hous-ing has been approved and it's a pity that parents and their children needed to be murdered for it to do so.»

On Saturday, the ministerial team for settlements approved hundreds of new apartments in the settlements of Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel, Kiryat Sefer and in Gush Etzion in a special meeting.

The move comes in the wake of a terror-ist attack on Friday in which five mem-bers of one family were stabbed to death in the West Bank settlement of Itamar.

Among the participants in the specially called meeting were Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Homeland Security Minister Matan Vilna'i. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office told Israel Radio that the plan deals with measured building inside existing settlement blocs. ■

U.S. 'partner' behind massacre of Jewish family Parents, children murdered; 3-year-old stabbed in heart, infant's throat cut

By Aaron Klein, WND, March 13, 2011

JERUSALEM – Cells from the Palestin-ian Authority's so-called military wing were involved with planning and carry-ing out yesterday's bloody massacre in which five family members were bru-tally stabbed to death inside their home in the Jewish village of Itamar, reports


sources from within those terror cells speaking to WND.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the «military wing» of PA President Mah-moud Abbas' Fatah party, at first re-leased a pamphlet taking responsibility for the attack and then quickly retracted the statement.

Top sources in the Brigades leadership in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, however, confirmed to WND that members of the Fatah group planned and helped to carry out the at-tack.

The sources claimed the attack was not sanctioned by the Fatah leadership but was planned by Brigades members who were acting as individuals.

Also, the sources said the actual perpe-trators of the attack were sleeper cells from Hamas, while the Brigades leaders planned the attack, provided logistical support and aided in the Hamas agents' escape.

If accurate, this would evidence unusual cooperation between Hamas and Fatah rivals.

The George W. Bush administration had labeled Fatah as a «negotiating partner» for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict.

Just two weeks ago, WND reported ex-clusively that members of Abbas' Bri-gades, now classified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization, have been brandishing weapons publicly in recent days despite a disarmament agreement with Israel.

According to informed Israeli security sources, messages were passed to the PA by the Israel Defense Forces and Israel's Shabak security services, that the armed Brigades members must lay down their weapons or face arrest.

Israeli security officials told WND two weeks ago they fear the newfound mili-tancy of the Brigades – evidenced by their publicly brandishing weapons – may be a strategic decision on the part of the PA to orient itself in a more ex-tremist direction following Barack Obama's championing of unrest that toppled pro-Western regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

Murdered members of Udi Fogel family

Yesterday's massacre, in the northern West Bank village of Itamar, saw Pales-tinian assailants stab to death the Fogel family – father Udi, 37, mother Ruth, 36, 10-year-old Yoav, 4-year-old Elad, and 3-month-old Hadas – inside their home. Two other children in the house at the time were not hurt in the attack, apparently because the terrorists did not notice them.

Israel National News reported the initial findings of the investigation show the terrorists stabbed the Fogel family's sleeping 3-year-old in the heart and slashed the throat of his 3-month-old sister.

The assailants apparently entered the Fogel's home through a living room window. They did not notice a 6-year-old boy sleeping on the couch and con-tinued on to the bedroom, where they slashed the throats of the father and newborn baby sleeping there.

The mother, Ruth, came out of the bath-room and was stabbed in the doorway. The evidence shows she tried to fight the terrorists.

The Palestinians found 10-year old Yoav reading in bed when they stabbed him to death.

They apparently also did not notice a 2-year old asleep in his bed, but murdered the 3-year old with two stabs to his heart.

After that, the terrorists reportedly locked the door of the house and exited through the window.

The Fogel's 12-year-old daughter re-turned home only to find the horrific scene. She reportedly ran out of the house screaming.

According to reports, she was not able to initially enter the locked house so she woke up a neighbor, who assisted her in waking up one of the sleeping children inside the Fogel home who had had not been noticed by the terrorists.

Meanwhile, IDF Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, director general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry, said to-day that hours after the Itamar massacre, Abbas met with a member of a song

group that contributes to an «atmos-phere of terror.»

Palestinian Media Watch today reported on the rampant incitement to violence evidenced in the PA media in the days and weeks before yesterday's attack.

Just one day before the assault, Sabri Saidam, advisor to and under-secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, de-livered a speech in which he empha-sized that weapons must be turned to-wards the «main enemy [Israel]» and that internal differences of opinion must be set aside.

In the week leading up to the terrorist attack, the PA announced plans for a football tournament named after the first Palestinian suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, who killed one and reportedly injured more than 150 when she blew herself up in Jerusalem in January 2002.

Earlier, Abbas' representative, Azzam Al-Ahmed, member of the Fatah Central Committee, was the guest of honor at a Palestinian scout ceremony in which buildings representing Jewish residents of the West Bank were blown up.

In December, Abbas granted the rela-tives of a Palestinian terrorist $2,000 as part of a regular PA campaign that sup-ports so-called «shahids» or «martyrs» who die while attacking Jews. ■

Radio confrontation: 'How can your group slit infant's throat?' Palestinian spokesman blasted over Jewish family's killing

WorldNetDaily, March 13, 2011

«Why should America continue to fund the Palestinian Authority when its own apparatus is responsible for incitement to murder and violence and terrorism and has carried out repeated terrorist attacks against civilians?»

This is just one of multiple questions fired away by WND senior reporter Aaron Klein on his WABC Radio show during an interview with PA spokesper-son Dmitri Diliani.

The confrontational interview, audio from which is linked below, took place in the wake of the weekend's bloody massacre in which Palestinian assailants brutally stabbed to death five members of the Udi Fogel family, including a 3-month-old infant, inside their home in the Jewish village of Itamar.


11-year-old son

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the «military wing» of PA President Mah-moud Abbas' Fatah party, at first re-leased a pamphlet taking responsibility for the attack and then quickly retracted the statement.

Top sources in the Brigades leadership in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, however, confirmed to WND that members of the Fatah group planned and helped to carry out the at-tack.

After Diliani repeatedly claimed to Klein that his Fatah organization con-demns violence and supports peace, Klein ended the interview, but not be-fore lashing into the Palestinian spokes-person.

«Yeah, you condemn violence,» Klein exclaimed sarcastically. «I can't hear any more of this.»

Continued Klein: «You condemn vio-lence as a Palestinian, probably from your party, just slit the throat of a Jew-ish infant and as your president, Mah-moud Abbas, just dedicated a square to an infamous Palestinian murderer.»

Klein was referring to reports that Abbas' Fatah faction yesterday – just one day after the terrorist massacre in Itamar – named a town square after the jihadist leader of a 1978 bus hijacking in which 35 Israelis were killed.

Klein asked Diliani to comment on those reports as well as the rampant in-citement to violence evidenced in the official PA media in the days and weeks before the Itamar attack.

Just one day before the assault, Sabri Saidam, advisor to and under-secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, de-livered a speech in which he empha-sized that weapons must be turned to-wards the «main enemy [Israel]» and that internal differences of opinion must be set aside.

In the week leading up to the terrorist attack, Palestinian Media Watch re-ported the PA announced plans for a football tournament named after the first Palestinian suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, who killed one and reportedly injured

more than 150 when she blew herself up in Jerusalem in January 2002.

Earlier, Abbas' representative, Azzam Al-Ahmed, member of the Fatah Central Committee, was the guest of honor at a Palestinian scout ceremony in which buildings representing Jewish residents of the West Bank were blown up.

In December, Abbas granted the rela-tives of a Palestinian terrorist $2,000 as part of a regular PA campaign that sup-ports so-called «shahids» or «martyrs» who die while attacking Jews. ■

Three Jewish children by Caroline B. Glick 14 March 2011 JP

People are no longer ashamed to parade negative feelings toward Jews.

Ruth Fogel was in the bathroom when the Palestinian terrorists pounced on her husband Udi and their three-month-old daughter Hadas, slitting their throats as they lay in bed on Friday night in their home in Itamar.

The terrorists stabbed Ruth to death as she came out of the bathroom. With both parents and the newborn dead, they moved on to the other children, going into a bedroom where Ruth and Udi's sons Yoav (11) and Elad (four) were sleeping. They stabbed them through their hearts and slit their throats.

3-year-old boy

The murderers apparently missed an-other bedroom where the Fogels' other sons, eight-year-old Ro'i and two-year-old Yishai were asleep because they left them alive. The boys were found by their big sister, 12-year-old Tamar, when she returned home from a friend's house two hours after her family was massacred.

Tamar found Yishai standing over his parents' bodies screaming for them to wake up.

In his eulogy at the family's funeral on Sunday, former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau told Tamar that her job from now on is to be her surviving brothers' mommy.

In a rare move, the Prime Minister's Of-fice released photos of the Fogel fam-ily's blood-drenched corpses.

They are shown as they were found by security forces.

There was Hadas, dead on her parents' bed, next to her dead father Udi.

There was Elad, lying on a small throw rug wearing socks. His little hands were clenched into fists. What was a four-year-old to do against two grown men with knives? He clenched his fists. So did his big brother.

Maybe the Prime Minister's Office thought the pictures would shock the world. Maybe Binyamin Netanyahu thought the massacre of three little chil-dren would move someone to rethink their hatred of Israel.

That was the theme of his address to the nation Saturday night.

Netanyahu directed most of his words to the hostile world. He spoke to the lead-ers who rush to condemn Israel at the UN Security Council every time we as-sert our right to this land by permitting Jews to build homes. He demanded that they condemn the murder of Jewish children with the same enthusiasm and speed.

He shouldn't have bothered.

The government released the photos on Saturday night. Within hours, the social activism website My Israel posted a short video of the photographs on You-Tube along with the names and ages of the victims.

Within two hours YouTube removed the video.

What was Netanyahu thinking? Didn't he get the memo that photos of mur-dered Jewish children are unacceptable? If they're published, someone might start thinking about the nature of Pales-tinian society.

Someone might consider the fact that in the Palestinian Authority, anti-Jewish propaganda is so ubiquitous and so murderous that killing the Fogel babies was an act of heroism. The baby killers knew that by murdering Udi, Ruth, Ha-das, Yoav and Elad they would enter the pantheon of Palestinian heroes. They can expect to have a sports stadium or school in Ramallah or Hebron built for them by the Palestinian Authority and underwritten by American or European taxpayers.

And indeed, the murder of the Fogel children and their parents was greeted with jubilation in Gaza.

Carnivals were held in the streets as Hamas members handed out sweets.


Obviously YouTube managers are not interested in being held responsible for someone noticing that genocidal Jew hatred defines Palestinian society – and the Arab world as a whole. But they really have no reason to be concerned. Even if they had allowed the video to be posted for more than an hour, it would-n't have made a difference.

The enlightened peoples of Europe, and growing numbers of Americans, have no interest in hearing or seeing anything that depicts Jews as good people, or even just as regular people. It is not that the cultured, intellectual A-listers in Europe and America share the Palestini-ans' genocidal hatred of the Jewish peo-ple.

The powerful newspaper editors, televi-sion commentators, playwrights, fashion designers, filmmakers and professors don't spend time thinking about how to prepare the next slaughter. They don't teach their children from the time they are Hadas and Elad Fogel's ages that they should strive to become mass mur-derers. They would never dream of do-ing these things. They know there is a division of labor in contemporary anti-Semitism.

The job of the intellectual luminaries in Western high society today is to hate Jews the old-fashioned way, the way their greatgrandparents hated Jews back in the days of the early 20th century be-fore that villain Adolf Hitler gave Je-whating a bad name.

Much has been made of the confluence of anti-Semitic bile pouring out of the chattering classes. From Mel Gibson to Julian Assange to Charlie Sheen to John Galliano, it seems like a day doesn't go by without some new celebrity exposing himself as a Jew hater.

It isn't that the beautiful people and their followers suddenly decided that Jews are not their cup of tea (or rail of co-caine). It's just that we have reached the point where people no longer feel em-barrassed to parade negative feelings towards Jews.

A DECADE ago, the revelation that French ambassador to Britain Daniel Bernard referred to Israel as «that shi**y little country,» was shocking. Now it is standard fare. Everyone who is anyone will compare Israel to Nazi Germany without even realizing this is nothing but Holocaust denial.

The post-Holocaust dam reining in anti-Semitism burst in 2002. As Jewish chil-dren and parents like the Fogels were being murdered in their beds, on the streets, in discotheques, cafés and su-permarkets throughout Israel, fashion-

able anti-Semites rejoiced at the oppor-tunity to hate Jews in public again.

The collective Jew, Israel was accused of everything from genocide to infanti-cide to just plain nastiness.

Israel's leaders were caricatured as Fa-gin, Shylock, Pontius Pilate and Hitler on the front pages of newspapers throughout Europe. IDF soldiers were portrayed as Nazis, and Israeli families were dehumanized.

No longer civilians with an inherent right to live, in universities throughout the US and Europe, Israeli innocents were castigated as «extremist-Zionists» or «settlers» who basically deserved to be killed.

Professors whose «academic» achieve-ments involved publishing sanitized postmodern versions of anti-Jewish Pal-estinian propaganda were granted tenure and rewarded with lucrative book con-tracts.

Today, when properly modulated, Jew hatred is a career maker. Take play-wright Caryl Churchill's 1,300- word anti-Semitic monologue Seven Jewish Children.

The script accuses the entire population of Israel of mass murders which were never committed.

For her efforts, Churchill became an in-ternational celebrity. The Royal Court Theater produced her anti- Jewish agit-prop. The Guardian featured it on its home page. When Jewish groups de-manded that The Guardian remove the blood libel from its website, the paper refused. Instead, it left the anti-Semitic propaganda on its homepage, but in a gesture of openmindedness, hosted a debate about whether or not Seven Jew-ish Children is anti-Semitic.

From London, Seven Jewish Children went on tour in Europe and the US. In a bid to show how tolerant of dissent they are, Jewish communities in America hosted showings of the play, which por-trays Jewish parents as monsters who train their children to become mass murderers.

Seven Jewish Children's success was repeated by the Turkish anti-Semitic action film Valley of the Wolves- Pales-tine, which premiered on January 28 – International Holocaust Memorial Day. The hero of that film is a Turkish James Bond character who comes to Israel to avenge his brothers, who were killed by IDF forces on the Turkish-Hamas terror ship Mavi Marmara last May.

No doubt owing to the success of Seven Jewish Children and Valley of the Wolves-Palestine and other such initia-

tives, anti-Semitic art and entertainment is a growth sector in Europe.

Last month Britain struck again. Chan-nel 4 produced a new piece of anti-Semitic bile – a four-part prime-time miniseries called The Promise. It pre-sents itself as an historical drama about Israel and the Palestinians, but its rela-tionship with actual history begins and ends with the wardrobes. In what has become the meme of all European and international left-liberal salons, the only good Jews in the mini-series are the ones who died in the Holocaust. From the show's perspective, every Jew who took up arms to liberate Israel from the British and defend it from the Arabs is a Nazi.

WHAT ALL this shows is that Netanyahu was wasting his time calling on world leaders to condemn the murder of the Fogel family. What does a con-demnation mean? France and Britain condemned the massacre, along with the US. Does that exculpate the French and British for their embrace of anti-Semitism? Does it make them friends of the Jewish state? And say a British playwright sees the YouTube censored photographs. No self-respecting British playwright will write a play called Three Jewish Children telling the story of how Palestinian parents do in fact teach their children to become mass murderers of Jews. And if a playwright were to write such a play, The Royal Court Theater wouldn't produce it. The Guardian wouldn't post it on its website. Liberal Jewish community centers in America wouldn't show it, nor would university student organizations in Europe or America.

No, if someone wanted to use the pho-tographs of Yoav's and Elad's mangled corpses and clenched fists as inspiration to write a play or feature film about the fact that the Palestinians have no na-tional identity outside their quest to an-nihilate the Jewish state, he would find no mass market.

The headlines describing the attack make all this clear.

From the BBC to CNN the Fogels were not described as Israelis. They were a «settler family.» Their murderers were «alleged terrorists.»

As far as the opinion makers of Europe and much of America are concerned, the Yoavs and Hadases and Elads of Israel have no right to live if they live in «a settlement.»

So too, they believe that Palestinians have a right to murder Israelis who serve in the IDF and who believe that Jews should be able to live freely wher-


ever we want because this land belongs to us.

Until these genteel Jew haters learn to think otherwise, Israel should neither seek nor care if they condemn this or any other act of Palestinian genocide. We shouldn't care about them at all. ■

«I Will Be Their Mother» Says 12 Year Old Tamar Fogel by Uzi Baruch, 9 Adar Bet 5771, 15 March 2011, A7

The eldest daughter of the Fogel family, 12 year old Tamar, promised her rela-tives: «I will be strong and succeed in overcoming this. I understand the task that stands before me, and I will be a mother to my siblings». The orphaned youngster's words were quoted in the Hebrew daily Yisrael Hayom.

In their home in the town of Neve Tsuf in Samaria, Tsila and Chaim Fogel, par-ents of Udi, are sitting on low benches for the traditional «shiva» week of mourning alongside his three brothers and sister. There is a constant stream of comforters going in and out of the house, VIP's and ordinary citizens from all over Israel, whose hearts go out to the bereft family that lost son, daughter-in-law, and three young grandchildren in a barbaric terrorist slaughter on Fri-day night.

Chaim Fogel continues to retell the story of terrible hours from 3 a.m. on, when he received the horrific news, drove to Itamar, met his 12 year old granddaughter and then entered the fam-ily's home. The authorities were forced to ask her to tell what she saw when she returned from her youth group activity to find her family's bloodsoaked bodies at 12:30 a.m. Chaim himself had the heartbreaking task of identifying the bodies.

«We came to take the surviving grand-children out of the Valley of Death, he said. I don't wish on anyone in the world the sight I saw. It is horrendous, beyond description, beyond comprehension».

The grandparents recalled the last time they saw Udi, Ruti and the children, a week and a half ago on Saturday night. They celebrated the start of the month of Adar Bet in Itamar, danced, sang and laughed.

«At least they had a taste of Purim», said Udi's mother Tzila. «I didn't feel any premonitions. Why should I have thought that I will never see them again? I am not trying to remember if there was anything of that nature in my mind. We

were happy together. We have photos of the children playing and happy».

The family is against any personal re-venge or taking the law into civilian hands. Their slain children felt the same, they said, unequivocally.

The Ben Yishai home of Ruti's parents in Jerusalem, where the surviving grandchildren are now, is also crowded with comforters. After the mourning week is over, the family will decide where the children will live. Meanwhile, they are having difficulty in explaining to the youngest child what happened to his parents. «What shall we tell them?» they said. «What does a two-year-old understand when he cries over the loss of his parents? They tell us that children heal quickly, mentally and physically. We hope so». ■

11-Year-Old Yoav's Legacy: 'Love Everyone' by Chana Ya'ar, 10 Adar Bet 5771, 14 March 2011 A7

First responders who rushed into the blood-drenched bedroom of 11-year-old Yoav Fogel last Friday night were con-fronted with a sight that nearly stopped them in their tracks.

A colorful little wooden plaque hung above the slain young boy's bed, pro-claiming his love for his people and a prayer for peace between all.

The prayer above Yoav's bed, written originally in Hebrew, reads as follows (in English): May it be Your will, L-rd G-d and G-d of our forefathers, That I love every one of Israel as myself, and To graciously perform the positive com-mandment of loving your neighbor as yourself. And may it also be Your will, Lord G-d and G-d of my forefathers, That you cause the hearts of my friends and neighbors to love me fervently, and That I be accepted and desirable to every-one, and That I be loving and pleasant, and

That I be gracious and merciful in the eyes of all who see me. As water reflects face to face, so the heart of man to man. And all for the sake of Heaven, to do Your will, Amen

Along with his 4-year-old brother Elad and his new little baby sister, 3-month-old Hadas, Yoav and both of his parents were stabbed to death by terrorists who murdered them as they slept.

Miraculously, two of his brothers sur-vived, unnoticed by the terrorists in their rush to slaughter the family. Eight-year-old Ro'i and 2-year-old Shai were both sleeping at the time.

Israel news photos: courtesy of Fogel Family

Yoav's 12-year-old sister Tamar was not home at the time, returning about an hour after the terrorists left to find her family slaughtered. ■

IDF, settlers save Arab baby Saving life after massacre: IDF troops, paramedics save life of Palestinian woman giving birth in settlement where Fogel relatives sitting Shiva.

Soldier: «It felt amazing to hold girl in my arms, know we did something good»

Yair Altman, 17 March 2011, Ynetnews

IDF forces and local paramedics helped save the life of a Palestinian woman and her newly born infant Wednesday, at the settlement where Fogel relatives are sit-ting Shiva for the five Israelis brutally murdered last week.

Just as IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz arrived in Neve Tzuf to offer his condo-lences, a Palestinian cab raced towards the community's entrance. In it, soldiers and paramedics discovered a Palestinian woman in her 20s in advanced stages of labor and facing a life-threatening situa-


tion: The umbilical cord was wrapped around the young baby girl's neck, en-dangering both her and her mother.

The quick action of settler paramedics and IDF troops deployed in the area saved the mother's and baby's life, prompting great excitement and emo-tions at the site where residents are still mourning the brutal death of five local family members.

Corporal Haim Levin, 19, an IDF para-medic, was the first medical team mem-ber at the scene and recounted the dra-matic situation he faced.

«When I arrived, I saw a woman cov-ered by a blanket in a yellow Palestinian van. I moved closer and saw the baby's head and upper body,» he told Ynet. «The umbilical cord was around the baby's neck; the baby was grey and did-n't move.»

«I first removed the cord from the neck and at the same time asked paramedics to prepare the baby resuscitation kit. I pinched her to see if she's responding, and she started to cry,» he said. Para-medics also treated the mother, who was in good condition at that point, Levin said.

We treat everyone Meanwhile, ambulance driver Orly Shlomo raced to the scene. «We joined the military paramedic and helped him cut off the umbilical cord… without the medical treatment, the fetus and woman faced genuine life danger,» she told Ynet.

IDF Corporal Haim Levin and Palestinian baby, Jude

«It was touching, but I couldn't help but think that a few meters from there, peo-ple were sitting Shiva for another baby, who was murdered,» she said. «I was touched to see the face of the new baby, but I also thought about the face of the murdered baby.»

Gadi Amitun, who heads the Magen David Adom team at Neve Tzuf, said

this was not the first time settlers assist Palestinians in distress.

«They know we have a skilled medical team here, and in any case of accident or injury they arrive and we help them,» he said.

The paramedic noted that on the day of the Fogel massacre, settlers saw fireworks and celebrations in nearby Palestinian communities, but added that the local medical team is commit-ted to assisting anyone in need. «Two years ago, we also made sure to treat a terrorist who attempted to place a bomb on the road and was shot by sol-diers,» he said.

Palestinians from the nearby village of Nabi Salah gathered around the para-medics along with the new grandmother and could not hide their joy.

«They thanked us and told us they named the girl Jude,» Corporal Levin said. «I volunteered for Magen David Adom since age 15 and it's the first time I wit-nessed childbirth. It was an amazing feeling, to hold the girl that was just born in my arms, and to know that in this complex place we did something good.» ■

Mourning Father of Fogel Massacre Victim «Strengthens Israel» by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, 8 Adar Bet 5771, 14 March 11, A7

In a radio interview on radio Monday, Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai, the mourn-ing father of Ruth Fogel, one of the five victims of the Itamar massacre, taught a lesson of faith and strengthened the People of Israel.

His inspiring remarks on Voice of Israel government radio stunned the inter-viewer into near silence and brought tears to her eyes.

After Rabbi Ben-Yishai expressed deep pain but no anger or calls for vengeance, interviewer Estie Perez, who has de-scribed herself as a secular Jew, asked, «Where do you have the strength and restraint that you can talk now and strengthen us, without anger and with-out calling for vengeance – that is not in your voice? Where is the strength from?»

Rabbi Ben-Yishai answered, «I have worked in education many years, and as an educator, I try to strengthen and teach people faith. I understand that I cannot be satisfied with words and that I also must implement the same principles

on which I have educated others. This is a test of my faith, and therefore I agreed to be interviewed.»

«I believe in the country, in our strength and in the strength of the army, and I ask how did this strength not save our children?»

Rabbi Ben-Yishai said Monday morning that he asked the oldest surviving chil-dren, 12-year-old Tamar and eight-year-old Ro'i, if they wanted to say the Kad-dish prayer, recited by mourners and expressing their faith in the Creator.

«They answered, ‹Of course. They are our parents, brothers and sisters.›» The mourning father and grandfather told Voice of Israel government radio, «They understand.»

He said, «We [the grandparents] will take upon ourselves the difficult task and pave for them the path so that life will be victorious.»

«Their mother and father will pray for them from the Heavens, their grandfa-thers and grandmothers will give them a lot of love, and the People of Israel will hug them and encourage them to grow and continue in the path of their par-ents.»

Rabbi Ben-Yishai said that the only thing he regrets is that he did not tell his daughter Ruth and his grandchildren enough times, «I love you. I love you.» He added, «If I could go back in time, I would say so every five minutes, but that would not be enough.»

Rabbi Ben-Yishai revealed that the po-lice came to his home on Shabbat to in-form him of the attack but that no one was home because they were visiting in the north.

«The Creator was kind to us» by his not having to bear the bad news on the holy Sabbath. «Our daughter called after Shabbat, assuming we already knew.»

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with Rabbi Ben-Yishai on the telephone Saturday night and visited him Sunday morning. «He felt great sor-row and said that the entire People of Israel are part of the sorrow. We hugged each other,» Rabbi Ben-Yishai said.

In years past, Rabbi Ben-Yishai was a rabbi at Jerusalem's Machon Meir. ■


The two Fogel family killers apprehended at neighboring Awarta village DEBKAfile Special Report, 17 April 2011

Police have arrested Hakim Mazen Niad Awad, 17, and Amjad Mahmoud Fawzi, 18, in the West Bank village of Awarta on suspicion of murdering in their beds five members of the Fogel family in neighboring Itamar on March 11.

They confessed they were motivated by an ambition to kill Jews as Pales-tinian nationalists and die as martyrs. They expressed no remorse. After climbing the Itamar perimeter fence, the pair stole an M16 automatic rifle from an empty house, broke into the Fogel home and knifed two children Yoav and Elad. Their parents Udi and Ruthie Fogel woke up to find the killers in their bedroom and put up a fight. They too were stabbed to death.

When one of the two murderers returned to the house to look for more weapons, he killed three-month old Hadas, stole another M16 and left. He said had he known there were two more children sleeping in the house, he would have butchered them too. Their 12-year old sister found the five bodies when she returned home that night.

The two killers, Awad still at high school and Fawzi a student, handed the stolen rifles over to Palestinian accom-plices in the Ramallah sector who later helped them destroy the evidence of their crime. Six were rounded up.

Three young Israeli Arabs from Naz-areth were indicted before the district court Sunday for conspiring to carry out acts of terrorism. They established a new group called «Pledging Death to Zionists» and planned to make their own pipe bomb and gun for attacking Israeli soldiers, policemen and civilians. ■

Itamar murder suspects 'confessed under torture' By Khaled Abu Toameh, 18 April 2011, JP

The families of the two Palestinian teens arrested in connection with the grisly killings of members of the Fogel family in Itamar last month said on Sunday they don't believe the version given by

the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) about the role of their sons in the case.

IDF «covering up for crimes against our people,» says mother of Awad suspect; Awarta mayor: Killers couldn't have come from my village. (Reuters)

The families and many fellow residents of the village of Awarta claimed the two – Hakim Maazan Niad Awad, 18, and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad, 19 – had confessed under «torture.»

The mayor of Awarta, who also refused to accept the Shin Bet's version, called for an international inquiry to reveal the identity of the «real murderers.» Some villagers expressed fear that Awarta would be targeted by settlers seeking revenge.

«My son was at home on the night the incident took place in the settlement,» said the mother of Hakim Awad.

«He did not leave home at all that night.»

Awad's mother said he underwent sur-gery in his lower abdomen about five months ago, and that was why he may have confessed.

«I'm sure they tortured him and forced him to sign a confession,» she said. «His physical condition does not allow him to withstand torture. Everyone who knows my son is sure that he's innocent.»

The mother claimed the IDF was trying to «cover up for its crimes against our people and they chose these two young men as scapegoats.»

She also pointed out that her family lives «on the other side of the village – far from Itamar» – a fact she said would have made it even harder for her son to commit the killings.

Hakim Awad's aunt said the family al-ready had five «martyrs» – an uncle, three cousins and a brother-in-law.

She described Hakim as the «shy type» who rarely socialized with other teens.

«He was a high-school pupil in the Awarta Secondary School and did not have relationships with people older than him,» she said.

The mayor of Awarta, Qais Awad, also expressed doubts about the involvement of the two teenagers in the Itamar attack

and called for an international investiga-tion into the case.

He said Sunday's Shin Bet announce-ment about the identity of the suspects was aimed at «covering up for the occu-pation's crimes against the village over the past 35 days.»

Israel has failed and is now trying to cover up for what its security forces did in our village by issuing this announce-ment, he added.

He was referring to the village having been sealed off during this time, with widespread detentions and searches.

The mayor expressed fear that his vil-lage would be targeted by «angry set-tlers» and the IDF because of the ar-rests. He added that while he strongly condemned the Itamar killings, he was confident that the perpetrators could not have come from his village.

Hussein Awad, a relative of the two suspects, said many residents were sur-prised to hear about the arrests.

«We find it hard to believe that two teenagers would commit such a despi-cable crime,» he said. «Maybe they con-fessed under torture. We heard that the Israeli army had arrested the sister of one of them and that this put pressure on him.»

The Palestinian Authority did not issue a response to the Awarta arrests. How-ever, a PA official in Ramallah said Sunday's announcement «proves that no Palestinian organization was behind the attack on the settlement.» ■

Who are the terrorists who murdered the Fogel family? By Yaakov Lappin, 17 April 2011, JP

Itamar terrorist's uncle, an PFLP mem-ber, transported shooter in 2002 settle-ment attack in which wife and 3 chil-dren were killed.

Photo by: Courtesy

The main suspects in the Fogel family slayings are Hakim Maazan Niad Awad,


18, and Amjad Mahmed Fauzi Awad, 19.

Hakim Awad was arrested on April 5. He is a high school student who has been linked by security forces to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pal-estine group in Awarta.

In October 2010, Hakim stabbed a num-ber of youths during a personal dispute, the IDF said. His father, Maazan, is a PFLP member who served five years in a Palestinian Authority prison in the late 1990s for the murder of a female cousin and the burning of her body.

Hakim's uncle, Jibril Awad, was a PFLP member who transported a terrorist to Itamar in 2002. In that attack, Rahel Shabu, three of her three sons, and resi-dent Yosef Twitto were shot and killed.

In 2003, Jibril Awad was killed in a fire-fight with the IDF.

Amjad Awad was arrested on April 10. Also a student, he is from the same clan as Hakim Awad but is not directly re-lated. Amjad has links with the PFLP, according to security sources, and worked in Israel for a period of time.

Suspected accomplices are also under arrest.

Salah Aladin Salim Awad, 31, from Awarta, is a PFLP member and Hakim's uncle.

He is suspected of helping the suspects cover their tracks after the killings, tell-ing them to burn their blood-soaked clothes and sending firearms they stole from Itamar to a friend in Ramallah.

Jad Avid, 31, from Ramallah, is sus-pected of hiding the firearms after re-ceiving them from Salah Awad. He was arrested in his home and the firearms were seized by the IDF.

Maazan Niad Awad, 43, from Awarta, is Hakim's father and a PFLP member.

Mahmed Saeed Awad, 26, is a PFLP member in Awarta to whom the sus-pects turned with a request to procure firearms ahead of the Itamar attacks. ■

Fogel murderers provide account of Itamar massacre By Yaakov Lappin, 18 April 2011, JP

«We would have killed the two other children, but didn't know they were there,» one suspect tells Shin Bet inter-rogators.

On the night of March 11 – as members of the Fogel family slept in their home in Itamar – Hakim Maazan Niad Awad

and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad set out from the village of Awarta, 2 km. to the south, armed with knives, face masks and a wire cutter, security forces said on Sunday.

The following account of the massacre that followed is based on confessions from the two suspects, a reenactment of the attack by them, and a painstaking investigation led by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

The suspects planned the stabbings days ahead, and made unsuccessful attempts to obtain firearms from a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pal-estine representative in their village.

The lack of guns did not dissuade the two men from carrying out their plan to murder Jews.

The youths left Awarta on foot, and af-ter a kilometer, decided against using their wire cutter after seeing that the fence was electric. Instead they climbed over the fence, over a forest hilltop, and reached a row of homes in Itamar.

They entered a home adjacent to the Fogel residence, but no one was there. They stole an M-16 rifle from the home, as well as ammunition and body armor, and walked down the street.

The terrorists then saw the Fogel resi-dence, and spotted children sleeping through the window, security forces said.

Immediately after entering the home, the youths set their knives on two broth-ers sleeping in their beds, four-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. During the struggle, one of the suspects used the stolen M-16 to shoot Ruth Fogel dead. Ehud died of his stab wounds during the fight.

The two men left the house, but then they heard three-month-old Hadas cry-ing.

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,» a security source said.

Two other children were in the home, but were spared because Akim and Am-jad did not know they were there.

Amjad later told interrogators that he would have killed them, too, had he known that they were in the house.

After murdering five members of the family, the men walked back to their 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 clothes, which were covered in blood.

The men then returned to their daily life. Meanwhile, Salah sent the murder weapons to a friend in Ramallah, named Jad Avid, who hid them in his home.

«They received much support from fam-ily members and friends in their envi-ronment,» the security source said.

Six suspected accomplices are also un-der arrest. ■

Fogel Terrorist: Like Father, Like Son by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, 13 Nissan 5771, 17 April 11, A7

The father of one of the murderers of the Fogel family at Itamar had served in jail for terror, and an uncle involved in the 2002 terror attack on same commu-nity.

Two teenagers were arrested for the massacre of five members of the Fogel family. The father of high school stu-dent murderer Hakim Mazen Awad was active in the Popular Front for the Lib-eration of Palestine terrorist organiza-tion and previously had been jailed in Israel.

Awad and Amjad Awad carried out the brutal murders at Itamar, the same community where Hakim Awad's uncle was involved with the 2002 terrorist at-tack that killed five people. He was killed the following year in a clash with IDF forces.

After the murders of the Fogel family, another uncle of Awad, who also was a PLFP terrorist and had served a prison sentence for terror, enlisted other rela-tives to burn the attackers' bloodstained clothes.

While the teenage terrorist butchers re-turned to school, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, the uncle took the knives used in the massacre and moved them to Ramallah. Israeli secu-rity agents have identified and arrested the man who hid the knives and have recovered the murder weapons.

One of the suspected terrorist's mother insisted that her son was sleeping at the time of the murders, despite his confes-sion.

Another resident of Awarta, where the terrorists live, told Voice of Israel gov-ernment radio Sunday that he does not even believe that the terrorist attack took place. ■


«We won't seek capital punishment» Yair Altman, 18 April 2011, Ynetnews

Parents of Udi Fogel, who was mur-dered in Itamar massacre together with wife, three kids, feel they've come full circle as suspects captured ahead of Passover.

Tzila and Haim Fogel. Coming full circle Photo: Gil Yohanan

Haim and Zila Fogel, parents of Udi who was murdered by terrorists along with his wife Ruth and three of their children, have come full circle. The Fogels have allowed a Ynet crew into their home after Sunday's report of the arrest of two suspects in the Itamar mas-sacre.

«It's good they caught them before Pass-over, we've come full circle. We want to close this chapter as soon as possible and start to rehabilitate the children, which is the most important thing,» Haim said.

He is finding it hard to come to terms with the murderers' identities. «You see those are people, people who committed these heinous crimes,» he said.

«During the shiva we kept thinking – maybe it would turn out to be something else, a crazy person. Now it's clear – this was an act of hate and it's seeping through. While the Palestinian Authority might say they condemn the crime, I still blame them.»

The grandfather, who has lost five members of his family in the terror at-tack, said has no plans to launch a cam-paign to promote capital punishment for the terrorists.

«They didn't escape, didn't allow the security forces to kill them. They will go to jail, have fun there, study. But I'm not the one who decides on punishment and we shall not launch a capital pun-ishment campaign. Our goal is that they be punished in the most severe way, them and their families.»

«People like them, even if they receive five life sentences – will receive the greatest honor in prison,» Haim added.

«We are left with our mourning, left with the grandchildren and are forced to continue coping.»

Tzila Fogel. «We will hold Seder despite difficul-ties» (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Tamar Fogel and two of her younger brothers, who were saved from the mas-sacre, are staying with their slain mother's parents – the Ben Yishai fam-ily.

«We will spend Passover together like one very big family. We embrace them, but no one really knows what they are going through,» Ruth's parent's said.

The publication of the names of the murder suspects just ahead of the holi-day did not surprise Tzila Fogel. «I had a feeling that it will be published before Passover – there's something ironic about it. But the true gift is the children that survived.

«The night of the Seder,» she noted, «will be difficult at first, but we will hold it nevertheless. The kids and grandkids will be here and we bought all of them gifts. It will be difficult, but we will rejoice, because we are told to re-joice on the Seder night,» Tzila noted.

«We will celebrate the Seder with Tzila's delicious food, along with all the people of Israel,» concluded Haim.

Advertisement

Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad con-fessed to their involvement in the mur-der of five member of the Fogel family in Itamar, and said that they sought to carry out a terror attack in order to kill Israelis. They expressed no regret over the murders.

The families of the two suspects refused to believe the two committed the massa-cre. Hakim Awad's mother, Nawef, claimed that her son was at home the night of the murder and never left the house.

«Five months ago Hakim underwent a surgery in his stomach and I'm sure he was tortured and forced into confess-ing.» ■

Israeli Left's Solidarity with Itamar Killers by Maayana Miskin, 13 Nissan 5771, 17 April 11, A7

Shortly before the IDF revealed the identities of the two murderers of five members of the Fogel family, activists with the extreme Israeli left went to visit one killer's family – and con-demn Israel for detaining him. Members of Women for Peace (Nashim L'Shalom), Gush Shalom, and Adam Lelo Gvulot traveled to the Palestinian Authority-controlled village of Awarta, next to Itamar, where the IDF had been conducting intensive investigations into the recent attack.

«The atrocity we saw in the home of Mohammed Awad can only be de-scribed as a pogrom, as primitive and brutal revenge aimed at putting fear in residents' hearts,» activist Yaakov Ma-nur wrote of the visit one week ago. «The father, 45-year-old Mohammed, his son Majdi, 20, a third-year student in university, son Amjad, 19, a second-year student at university, and Hakem, 17, were arrested.»

Amjad, 19, was later revealed to be one of the murderers. He and fellow murderer Hakim Awad told investi-gators they had received help and support from their relatives after murdering Udi and Ruti Fogel and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, three months old. The leftist activists apparently did not realize that the Awad family was in-volved in the murders, and simply be-lieved the family's claims that Israel was treating them badly for no reason.

The Yisrael Sheli (My Israel) Move-ment said Sunday that the leftist groups had crossed a line. «The time has come to make leftist groups that support mur-derers illegal. Whoever supports baby killers has no place in a democratic so-ciety,» the group said in a statement.

«Leftists groups' encouragement for terrorists, which joins the Palestinian Authority incitement, and author Amos Oz's support for murderer Barghouti, ultimately creates human monsters like the murderers from Awarta.» MK Michael Ben-Ari (Ichud Leumi) called on Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein to investigate the groups that went to Awarta to provide support to the terrorists' families. «By their acts, they incited to violence,» he wrote.


He added, «Today we see the extreme Left's true face. These are their friends, these are the people they defend!»

MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said the Israelis who expressed solidarity with the Awad family had reached a moral low. «They cannot comfort their brothers in Itamar, but run to show solidarity with the enemy,» she said. ■

Fogel family: Murder heinous, hate bottomless Yair Altman, 17 April 2011, Ynetnews

Family members of Itamar massacre victims speak out following release of murder investigation findings. 'There is no consolation,' says Ruth's brother as both sides seek to protect surviving children.

Haim Fogel with Yehuda Ben Yishai Photo: Ido Erez

After the Passover Seder and holiday, Haim and Tzilla Fogel will spend the holiday week with their orphaned grandchildren Yishai, Roi and Tamar. «Going back to our regular personal lives and raising the surviving chil-dren,» says Tzilla.

It now appears that their lives will be able to regain some semblance of nor-mality sooner rather than later with the solving of the investigation into the massacre of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar and the arrest of the killers.

Tzilla wished to thank the security forces for capturing the murderers – two teens from the Palestinian village of Awarta. «I believe that their job isn't done, they will find anyone who had any connection with the case and not just the loathsome killers. I can't say we're happy, because that word isn't suitable at this time.»

Udi's father Haim Fogel said that «there is no doubt that the arrest of the murder-ers touches the heart». According to Fogel, «we knew it would touch the na-tion, we thought it would do more but from our perspective, we closed a circle.

«This is a heinous murder of bottomless hate that is simply impossible to under-stand. Going into a family home and murdering people is something that only those who have it instilled in them from babyhood can do.»

Murdered Fogel family gravesite (Photo: Noam Moskowitz)

Meanwhile, Ruth Fogel's brother, Yochai Ben Yishai told Ynet: «We are very proud of the State and the security services. But on a personal level, there is no consolation, the pain remains sharp.»

Yishai added that «the capture of he murderers gives us a sense of satisfac-tion on a national level but we must get to a point where these people are de-terred before they take action and not just apprehended after the murder.»

Another one of Ruth's brothers, Elichai Ben Yishai also discussed the revela-tions, saying that the arrest of the terror-ists who killed his sister does not com-fort him. «What we lost cannot be brought back, even if the killers were caught,» he said.

«Ehud, Ruth and their children were representatives of the State of Israel,» he said. «They died in the name of God, for Israel. We expect the state to do what is right to bring back the national pride and to prevent such incidents from hap-pening again.» ■

Palestinian baby killer: «proud of what I did» Ahiya Raved, 5 June 2011, Ynetnews

Amjad Awad said he has no regrets over butchering family of five in Itamar, even if it means he'll get death sentence. «I'm proud of what I did ,» so declared Amjad Mahmad Awad, 19, on Sunday just moments before an indictment against him and his partner Hakim Awad was filed before the Judea and Samaria Sector Military Court, over the murders of five members of the Fogel family two and a half months ago.

«Proud» Amjad Mahmad Awad.

«I don't regret what I did, even if it means I'm sentenced to death,» Amjad said ahead of the indictment hearing.

Five members of the Fogel family were butchered in the March 11 terror attack in Itamar. Husband and wife Udi and Ruthie Fogel and three of their children: Yoav (11) Elad (4) and baby Hadas (four months).

Hakim Awad.

A month after the attack elite IDF forces succeeded in capturing the murderers. A few soldiers arrived at Amjad's house in the village of Awarta near Itamar in the middle of the night.

«He was sleeping and surprised by our arrival. He was very frightened. In spite of his young age he carried out these monstrous acts,» said Captain N, com-mander of the Duvdevan (cherry) unit.

According to N, «since the attack we were on high alert to arrest those re-sponsible for this horrific murder. It was clear to us that this was an important case and that we needed to be prepared. Our preparations included many scenar-ios… When it was all over I told my soldiers that they did a great thing.» ■

Samaria Itamar attack kills 5 Jews (16 page compilation)

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