West Bank Murders

April 2, 2009
Israel: Axe-wielding jihadist kills teenager, stabs 7-year-old; Hamas says it's part of "resistance"

A "natural reaction," they said. "Axe-wielding terrorist kills boy, 16, wounds 7-year-old," from the Jerusalem Post, April 2:

An axe-wielding terrorist infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin Thursday afternoon, killing a 16-year-old boy after hitting him in the head, and stabbing a 7-year-old with a knife.

Government spokesman Mark Regev called the attack a "senseless act of brutality against innocents."

Speaking by phone from the scene, Magen David Adom paramedic Ronen Bashri told The Jerusalem Post that ambulances and emergency response teams were called to the settlement after receiving a report of an axe attack.

"We found a seven-year-old boy fully conscious with a head injury caused by a sharp object," Bashri said. "And we found a 16-year-old whom we had to declare dead on the scene."

The name of the boy who was killed was later released to be Shlomo Nativ. His funeral will be at 5:00 p.m. in Gush Etzion. The other victim was rushed to the hospital and admitted in light to moderate condition.

Magen David Adom chairman Eli Bin told the Post, "I can confirm that an axe caused the fatal head injury." He added that the injured boy was struck by a sharp object, possibly the same ax. "Both victims sustained head injuries," he said.

The attack ended after one resident who saw the younger boy running from the terrorist stepped in and disarmed the man.

Roadblocks were set up throughout the area in an effort to catch the man, and security forces immediately launched an investigation to determine how the man entered the community. The initial assumption was that the terrorist was an Arab laborer and had therefore not aroused suspicion. [...]

Less than an hour after the attack, the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. A murky terrorist group calling itself the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh also claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail sent to the Associated Press.

For its part, Hamas called the attack a natural response to the "occupation."
"This attack was committed in the framework of the resistance," Ayman Taha, a spokesperson for the group said. "This is a reaction to the continuing occupation and the continued building of settlements."

"This is a natural reaction," he said, "especially against the backdrop of Israel attacks. We are a people occupied, and it is our right to defend ourselves and to act in every way and with every means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves." ...