IDF checks if burning car is linked to West Bank terror attack
Three Palestinians said detained in village near to site where Israeli father, son were shot dead hours earlier
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A Mazda car caught fire in the Dura area, south of Hebron, late Friday evening, Israeli media reported. The military was examining whether the vehicle may have been related to an earlier shooting attack nearby in which two Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists.
The attackers killed a father and son, ambushing the family of seven from their car as it passed by in its van.
Separately, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported that Israeli troops detained three Palestinians near Hebron, hours after the attack took place.
Head of the local council of al-Samu village, Yusif al-Salameen, told the news agency that soldiers erected a checkpoint at the entrance of al-Simiya village nearby and searched passing vehicles. Three Palestinians were detained during the searches, he said, adding that reinforcements had arrived for Israeli forces stationed in the area.
Following the attack, the army closed all entrances and roads leading to the scene, and closed the entrances to the nearby al-Fawwar refugee camp, Dura, and al-Dhahiriya, Ma’an reported.
The army did not confirm the arrests.
Earlier Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon instructed the army to deploy more troops to the area in the manhunt for the killers.
Ya’alon conducted an assessment of the security situation with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Shin Bet security service head Yoram Cohen, Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Levi and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai.
The Israeli family of seven were traveling near Otniel in the southern West Bank. The gunfire fatally wounded the father and his son, who managed to telephone emergency services and alert them. He was then hit by more gunfire. The two died at the scene.
The family’s mother and her second son, a 16-year-old boy, were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba for treatment. The three daughters were treated at the same hospital for shock.
A Channel 2 report said security authorities were investigating whether the first ambulance on the scene, from the Palestinian Red Crescent, slowed, saw that the victims were Jews, and sped away without providing medical assistance.
Security forces entered a number of villages in the area, supported by military helicopters, in the hunt for the terrorists. The nearby village of Yatta was placed under closure.
The murdered father and the son were seated in the front seats of the vehicle. Initial reports said the family, said to live in the settlement of Kiryat Arba adjoining Hebron, was on its way to relatives in the southern town of Meitar for Shabbat when the attack happened.
The Times of Israel Community.