Tel Aviv – Five family members were stabbed to death at home late Friday evening by one or more Palestinians who infiltrated the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar, Israeli military officers said.
The killings triggered an Israeli military manhunt Saturday in Palestinian districts near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, as the soldiers set up road blocks and conducted house to house searches, the Associated Press reported.
The attack, the deadliest of its kind in three years, ratcheted up tension between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at a time when peace talks between the sides are moribund. By targeting an area of Jewish settlers known for vigilantism against Palestinians, the killings also threaten to trigger an upsurge in violence.
Two parents, an 11-year old, a three-year old and an infant were killed while they slept, though two other young children were left alive, Israeli media reported. The killings were discovered when the family's eldest child returned home after midnight, realized something was amiss, and called for help to get in the house.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement demanding the Palestinian Authority leaders assist in arresting those responsible.
``This is a despicable murder of an entire innocent family, parents, children, and an infant, while they were sleeping in their home on the Sabbath evening,'' the statement said. ``Israel will not stand by idly after such a despicable murder, will vigorously act to safeguard the lives its citizens.''
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack by militant groups.
Speaking to reporters in the West Bank of city of Bethlehem on Saturday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said ``we clearly and firmly condemn all forms of violence, and I condemn what happened last night in Itamar, just as I condemn the crimes against Palestinians.''
The region around Nablus is infamous for ongoing clashes between extremist Jewish settlers and Palestinians.
In recent weeks, tensions between settlers and Palestinians have run high in the Nablus region. A week ago, settlers clashed with Israeli security officers firing rubber bullets while they demolished illegal buildings on an unauthorized hilltop outpost Havat Gilad, prompting the firebombing of a Palestinian house in revenge.
A group of Israelis in the settlements around Nablus have pursued in recent years a campaign of vigilantism known as ``price tag,'' targeting Palestinians in revenge for attacks on settlements by militants or in retribution for government activities aimed at curtailing settlement expansion.
Despite the tension, there is a broader calm in the West Bank. Lawless Palestinian cities during the recent uprising have been brought under control by Palestinian security services. The Palestinian Authority and Israel have also stepped up their cooperation against militants. Israel has removed checkpoints on the roads and at the entrance to Palestinian cities, boosting the Palestinian economy in the West Bank.
The last deadly attack on settlers came on Aug. 31, when four Israelis were killed in a shooting near Hebron, on the eve of an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in the U.S. Peace talks subsequently collapsed in a dispute over Israel's refusal to stop expanding settlements on land claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state.
Amid increasing diplomatic isolation over the breakdown in talks, Israel is currently preparing to unveil new peace initiative that would grant the Palestinians a state within temporary borders as an interim solution before the conclusion of negotiations on a final peace deal.
The attack Friday night was the deadliest since March 6, 2008, when eight students at a Jerusalem yeshiva seminary were killed in a shooting spree by a Palesitnian militant.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Friday instructed Israel's United Nations delegate to submit a complaint to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the Security Council. He criticized the Palestinian Authority for not condemning the attack sooner, saying that it ``says more than anything about the true nature of someone who is supposed to be a partner in to negotiations.''
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