Four residents of Beit Chaggai were murdered in close-range shooting at the entrance to Kiryat Arba

BY YISRAEL PRICE and A. Pe’er, Hamodia Military Correspondent

YERUSHALAYIM – Just a few hours before the renewal of direct peace talks in Washington, the Palestinians have once again made their intentions clear: they are reverting to terror - and through the front door this time. Like many attacks in the past, the terrorists chose to launch their attack just at the conclusion of the fast day of Ramadan.

Palestinian gunmen killed four Israeli residents of the town of Beit Chaggai, a couple and two hitchhikers, who were traveling in a vehicle at the entrance to Kiryat Arba near Chevron at around 7 p.m. last night.

Magen David Adom reported that the victims were two men and  two women, one expecting a child. 

The terrorists waited at the Bani Na’im junction, and when the Israeli car slowed for a turn in the road, they began to shoot. After the murderers’ initial shots disabled the vehicle, they approached it and shot the victims repeatedly at point-black range. They then fled the scene.

IDF and GSS forces arrived at the scene, erected roadblocks and launched a manhunt for the perpetrators. Security forces also closed off Route 60 from Yerushalayim to Chevron from Gush Etzion to Kiryat Arba, creating traffic jams that prevented locals from getting home until late at night.

For the second time in a month (following the railroad/minivan crash involving the Bernstein family), tragedy struck the ZAKAfamily of volunteers. Mommi Ben Chaim, a ZAKAvolunteer from the South Chevron region, rushed to the scene of the fatal shooting attack and began his sacred work at the site. ZAKAvolunteers were horrified to discover that one of the victims was his wife Kochava, and stopped their work in order to convey the tragic news to their fellow volunteer and offer him emotional support. ZAKAvolunteers from Beitar who also arrived at the scene continued clearing the site so that their South Chevron ZAKAcolleagues could escort Ben Chaim away from the scene.