Day after attack, terrorist who killed Danny Gonen still on loose

Security forces searched in vain through Friday and Saturday for the Palestinian gunman who shot dead Israeli Danny Gonen near the West Bank settlement of Dolev, northwest of Jerusalem, on Friday afternoon.

Gonen was being laid to rest at 11 p.m. Saturday in his home town of Lod. He had signed an organ-donor card and his mother approved the donations of his organs, Channel 2 reported.

Security officials believe the murderous attack was not pre-planned by a terror group, but rather was a “lone wolf” style killing, although they said they had not ruled out the possibility that the killer was linked to Hamas.

The Islamist terror group on Friday praised the killing as “heroic,” and spokesman Husam Badran said Saturday that “We bless whoever did it.” A group calling itself the “Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha Squad,” named for the two terrorists who kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers last summer, claimed responsibility for the attack, and said it was affiliated with the armed wing of Hamas.

Gonen, 25, was shot several times at point blank range, and a friend who was with him was also moderately injured, by a Palestinian gunman who flagged down their car as they drove slowly on a gravel path after visiting the Ein Buvin spring near Dolev.

Ten bullets were fired at the two from very close range, officials said. Some reports suggested that Gonen and his friend had cut short their visit to the spring because a Palestinian there aroused their suspicions, and that security officials were checking into whether this Palestinian may have telephoned the gunman to tell him about the two Israelis.

The Ein Buvin spring is in an area of the West Bank where prior coordination with the security forces is required for Israelis to visit.

Gonen was shot in the upper body and was transferred, unconscious, to Tel Hashomer Hospital by IDF helicopter. He died over an hour after the attack.

Gonen was an electrical engineering student and the eldest of five siblings.

The second man, whose identity was not made public, was being treated at Tel Hashomer.

Leaving the area of the spring, the two men slowed to speak to the Palestinian, who pulled the gun out of a bag, security officials said.

“The Palestinian asked for information regarding a nearby spring moments before drawing a gun and shooting the passengers at close range,” according to a statement released by the IDF.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the incident proved that Israelis are under constant threat.

“We mustn’t let the relative calm mislead us. Efforts to hurt us (Israelis) are underway at all times, and we will continue to fight them using all the means available to us,” he said.

President Reuven Rivlin condemned the attack, which he said was “another step in the quiet and serious escalation in acts of terrorism we have witnessed in recent months,” and called on Palestinian and Arab-Israeli leaders to do the same.

“We will not accept a situation in which a young hiker has his life taken from him in the land of Israel because he is Jewish. Security forces will work tirelessly to bring to justice those responsible for this cruel and brutal act. There should be heard clear and decisive condemnation of such criminal acts from both the Arab leadership, which bears responsibility for actions of terrorism emanating from its territory, as well as from the leaders of the Arab community in Israel,” Rivlin wrote on Facebook.

On Saturday, Israel urged the UN to take a tougher stance on Palestinian terrorism, saying its “balanced response” to the killing of Gonen was insufficient.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, had issued a statement Friday condemning the attack and calling for calm.

“I condemn today’s deadly shooting attack on an Israeli civilian vehicle traveling in the occupied West Bank,” Mladenov said. “On this second day of Ramadan and at the start of the Shabbat, I call on all sides to exercise the utmost restraint, to maintain calm and promptly bring the perpetrators to justice,” Mladenov said.

But Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor said the UN response was inadequate.

“The UN as always issues a ‘balanced response’ and calls on both sides to show restraint,” he said. “The UN must cease this objectionable practice, as only one of the sides bears responsibility for the cruel murder.”

AFP and AP contributed to this report.