Peace Talks Begin with Israeli Blood

Above: The mourners and the murdered
Below: the murderers

Four Israelis Shot Dead -Janine Zacharia & Samuel Sockol

Four Israeli civilians traveling in a car near the West Bank city of Hebron were shot dead Tuesday night as the Obama administration prepared to host Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington. Hamas asserted responsibility for the attack.
(Washington Post)


Netanyahu: Shooting Underscores Security Needs -Gwen Ackerman & Calev Ben-David

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a West Bank shooting attack that killed four Israelis underscored his nation's security needs ahead of a new round of Mideast peace talks.

"I will set clearly the security needs that are required precisely to address this kind of terror," Netanyahu said in Washington.
(Bloomberg)


The Murder Victims -Aviel Magnezi

Yitzhak Imes, 47, his [pregnant] wife Talya, 45, Kochava Even-Haim, 37, and Avishai Shendler, 24, were all from Beit Hagai.

Talya and Yitzhak were survived by six children, including a one-and-a-half-year-old infant.

Kochava Even-Haim, a teacher in Efrat, was survived by her husband and eight-year-old daughter.

Avishai Shendler had recently moved to Beit Hagai with his wife.
(Ynet News)


Medic Discovers Wife's Body at Scene of Attack -Yaakov Lappin

Zaka volunteer Momy Ben-Haim was dispatched to the scene of the terrorist attack with his colleagues.

"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."
(Jerusalem Post)


Attack: Reminder of Hamas Power -Avi Issacharoff & Amos Harel

Hamas sent a painful reminder to the U.S. administration and the Israeli government that in order to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they must also be made party to any deal.
(Ha'aretz)


Hamas' "Heroic Operation" -Isabel Kershner & Mark Landler

Hamas described the killing of four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday as a "heroic operation" on its Arabic Web site.

In Gaza, hundreds of Hamas supporters took to the streets to celebrate the news of the attack, urged on by the calls of an imam over the loudspeaker even before Hamas had officially said it was behind the killings.
(New York Times)
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UPDATE:

Hamas Planned to Abduct Bodies of Shooting Victims -Jack Khoury

Hamas terrorists had planned to abduct the bodies of four Israelis they killed in the West Bank earlier this month in order to force the Israel Defense Forces into undertaking a mass operation for their return and thus foil the resumption of direct peace negotiations between Israel and the PA, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Monday. A car that pulled up to the scene of the murder thwarted this plan and the terrorists fled the scene instead.
(Ha'aretz)
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