YAAKOV KATZ AND YAAKOV LAPPIN
09/01/2010
Yitzhak Ames, Tali Ames, Kochava Ben-Haim and Avishai Schindler were all from Beit Hagai; Yesha council announces immediate building freeze end.
Four Israelis were killed Tuesday night in a Hamas shooting attack in the West Bank believed to have been aimed at torpedoing the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, set to kick off on Wednesday in Washington.
Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press late Tuesday that Hamas carried out the attack. The four victims, described by a settler spokesman as a couple and two hitchhikers – were driving on Route 60 near the entrance to Kiryat Arba when their vehicle came under fire.
The victims were named as Yitzhak Ames, 47, and his wife Tali Ames, 45, Kochava Ben- Haim, 37, and Avishai Schindler, 24, all from Beit Hagai. The Ames couple had six children, including a oneand- a-half-year-old toddler.
Zaka volunteer Momy Ben- Haim was dispatched to the scene of the attack with his colleagues, when to his horror he discovered that his wife was among the dead.
“We saw a crying volunteer, and at first we did not understand what was happening – he has seen many disasters before,” Zaka volunteer Isaac Bernstein told The Jerusalem Post.
“Then he started shouting, ‘That’s my wife! That’s my wife!’ We took him away from the scene immediately,” Bernstein added.
Ben-Haim was taken to his home in Beit Hagai by his colleagues.
“When we arrived on the scene, all four doors of the car were open and four bodies were strewn on the road,” Magen David Adom paramedic Guy Ronen told The Jerusalem Post. “We saw that the vital organs had been struck by a very large number of bullets, and that there was no chance of saving their lives,” he added.
“It was a very difficult scene. We had learned to forget scenes like this in recent years,” Ronen said.
The IDF was investigating two possibilities – that Palestinian terrorists had laid an ambush alongside the road or that the shots were fired from a passing car.
IDF troops immediately launched searches for the perpetrators and the Central Command raised its level of alert, out of fear that Palestinian terrorists will increase efforts to perpetrate attacks in the coming days with the goal of torpedoing the peace summit in Washington.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who heard about Washington to relaunch direct talks with the Palestinians, said upon landing that he would speak in the evening with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and tell her that this “criminal attack” proves again the need for Israel to stand steadfastly by its security demands.
Netanyahu said that his heart goes out to the families of the victims, and that terrorism would not determine Israel’s borders or the future of the settlements.
Netanyahu spoke on the plane with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.
Netanyahu, according to his office, directed the security branches to act “without any diplomatic constraints against the murderers, and act aggressively against those who sent them.”
Officials in the prime minister’s entourage said that while Netanyahu was outraged by the attack, there was no intention of canceling the trip and returning to Israel.
The US made a statement on Tuesday night in the wake of the attack. The statement by the Press Secretary read:
"The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack today perpetrated by Hamas in which four Israelis were killed in the southern West Bank. We express our condolences to the victims’ families and call for the terrorists behind this horrific act to be brought to justice. We note that the Palestinian Authority has condemned this attack.
On the eve of the re-launch of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, this brutal attack underscores how far the enemies of peace will go to try to block progress. It is crucial that the parties persevere, keep moving forward even through difficult times, and continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region that provides security for all peoples."
Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene soon after the shooting at around 7:30 p.m. and declared the four people dead. Paramedics added that one of the women may have been pregnant.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, “Shots were fired from close range at the vehicle at approximately 7:30 p.m. All four occupants of the vehicle were shot dead. Security forces are searching for the attackers.”
According to eyewitness reports, the terrorists succeeded in hitting the passengers in their initial fire, but then approached the car and shot the occupants again at close range.
Following the attack, the Israel Police Operations Branch sent out an order to all officers in the Judea and Samaria district calling on them to increase their awareness and be on the look out for potential terror attacks, while maintaining security in the area.
Barak was also briefed on the attack by Ashkenazi and Diskin.
“This is a very grave incident,” Barak said. “The IDF and Israeli security forces will do everything they can to capture the murderers.
“Israel will not allow terrorists to lift their heads and will exact a price from the murderers and those who sent them. This is likely an attempt by terrorist lowlifes to stymie the diplomatic process and to hurt the chances of the talks opening in Washington.”
Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who is acting premier during Netanyahu’s absence, released a statement, saying that he was in close contact with Barak and with Netanyahu’s military attache and was constantly receiving updates.
“Unfortunately it has once again been proven that while we are working to find ways to advance peace and coexistence, there are those who will continue trying to commit acts of terror and murdering innocents,” Shalom said.
“Now it is clearer than ever that the real obstacles to peace are terror and the extremists who would do anything to inflame the entire region. The PA must fulfill its obligations in the territories.”
The head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, spoke with his Palestinian counterparts and updated them regarding the attack. PA security forces were conducting their own investigation into the shooting.
While the IDF apparently did not have specific intelligence regarding the Tuesday night’s shooting, there had been concern that terror groups would use the launching of direct peace talks to perpetrate attacks in the West Bank.
Ashkenazi and OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi had toured Judea and Samaria earlier this week and met with brigade commanders.
Ashkenazi asked the commanders to raise their level of vigilance for the duration of the summit in Washington out of fear that either Hamas, Islamic Jihad or even al-Qaida-affiliated elements would launch attacks against Israel.
The forces were also asked to avoid friction with the Palestinian civilian population and to demonstrate sensitivity at the crossings between Israel and the West Bank.
The head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, Tzvika Bar-Hai, called on Netanyahu to cancel the Washington talks.
“There is no place for negotiations with those who respond with deadly fire to our hand outstretched for peace,” he said.
“It is time for the leaders of Israel to wake up from the illusion of false peace,” Bar-Hai added.
“We’re talking about one of the worst terrorist attacks in the past few years,” said Naftali Bennet, director-general of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
“We’re asking that the prime minister immediately turn the plane around and come back to Israel. It’s not possible, while we’re holding funerals, that he can stay there. And we’re calling on him, tomorrow morning, to renew the building in Judea and Samaria,” he said.
The council announced Tuesday night that it would respond to the attack by unilaterally ending the construction freeze and starting to build on Wednesday.
On Tuesday night after the attack, several youths gathered at the entrance to Kiryat Arba protesting the talks in Washington.
Right-wing MKs also called for the talks to be frozen.
“The terror attack near Kiryat Arba is a reminder to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who his partners are,” said MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union). “The Likud government’s negotiations with the terrorist Abu Mazen [Abbas] are an energy boost to murder and terror.
The blood of those harmed is upon the head of the Likud government.”
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said, “Now it is clear – the most violent period is when there are negotiations. Netanyahu must immediately freeze the talks and concentrate on promising peace for Israeli civilians.”
Ariel’s fellow party member MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) joined the calls for Netanyahu to immediately return to Israel.
“Everyone who in recent months was a partner to the myth that Abu Mazen controlled the field must come to their senses and immediately suspend the activities to strengthen the Palestinian army that is being established with American assistance,” said Eldad.
“Such a body is not capable of effectively combating Hamas, and we should not be surprised if its weapons are directed against us.”
Within the coalition, ministers were much less willing to consider freezing the talks, despite the deadly attack.
“I do not think that we need to give a prize to the murderers by not holding talks,” said Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar. “As we see an Israeli hand extended to peace, we see a murderous response on the part of Palestinians.”
Coalition Chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) placed the blame not on the talks themselves, but on coalition partner Barak.
“Unfortunately all of the warnings that the policy of removing checkpoints and easing barriers for Palestinians would lead to terror have come to fruition.
“Defense Minister Barak needs to do his job as the person who is responsible for the security of Israeli civilians and not as a foreign minister who deals in diplomacy,” complained Elkin. “The answer to the attack needs to be an announcement of an immediate cessation of the building moratorium, renewing building in Judea and Samaria and stopping all gestures to the Palestinians.”
Among rank-and-file Likud MKs, many of whom have taken more right-wing stands than those of the party’s ministers, the responses were more ambiguous regarding the future of the talks.
“The terror organizations are passing on a clear message when they return to harming innocent Israeli civilians,” said MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), considered to be one of the most right-wing members of Likud’s Knesset faction.
“This is a warning light to all those who believe that concessions on the Land of Israel will lead to a solution to the conflict.
In the face of terror, one must respond with a strong hand without concessions.”
“We received an additional proof this evening of whom we are dealing, and once again the question arises who our partner is on the opposite side,” said MK Danny Danon (Likud). “We knew that Abu Mazen has no control in the Gaza Strip and, as we saw this evening, he has none in the West Bank either.”
Danon called on Netanyahu to make a condemnation of the attack by Abbas a condition for going ahead with the Washington summit.
On the opposite side of the aisle, MK Ze’ev Bielski (Kadima) said in response that “this horrific and murderous attack that occurred tonight was an attempt to weaken the peace talks through terror. We are witnesses to a condemnable act of murder of innocents. I am certain that the security forces will find the terrorists.
“The peace talks must continue because in the end, there is no way other than through an agreement to prevent terror,” he concluded.
Gil Hoffman, Herb Keinon, and Hilary Leila Krieger, and Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.
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