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Five Israelis, a couple and their three children, were found stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement early Saturday morning, according to the Israeli army.
The perpetrator, or perpetrators, broke into the family's house late Friday night and attacked them in the Itamar settlement, about 70 km north of Jerusalem, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman told Xinhua. The parents and their three children, aged between several months and 11 were stabbed and killed.
"A terrorist entered a private home in the settlement Itamar, and brutally murdered five people, three children and two parents. The result is fatal," said Maj. Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Central Command, according to an IDF office release.
Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi, the head of Israeli army's Central Command, vowed to capture the attacker as soon as possible. "We're pursuing the perpetrators and I estimate that we will quickly capture them," he said. "We will capture the murderers and make them pay."
This is one of the most serious attack against settlers in years. The Israeli military and border police arrived at the scene after the incident and closed down the area to track down suspects. Other than inspecting cars at nearby crossings, soldiers employed unmanned aircraft to scour the field.
Muawia Kabha, a Magen David Adom rescue service paramedic who was the first to arrive at the scene, described the scene he encountered inside the victims' home. "As soon as I entered the home, I knew that this is a severe case that we would be handling, " he said. "In the first room, the parents' bedroom, we saw a father, mother and a month-old baby girl with multiple stab wounds. An initial examination of the victims showed they had no vital signs."
"I continued to the second room and found an 11-year-old boy in his bed. He, too, had severe stab marks and there was nothing that could be done to save him. In the third room I found a 3-year-old boy lying in his bed with several stab wounds ... two minutes later we had to announce him dead," Kabha said.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak strongly condemned the violence. "This is a very serious incident and my heart goes out to the family," he was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying. " The IDF will use any means possible to catch the murder culprits."
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has asked the Israeli delegation at the United Nations to submit a complaint over the attack.
Initial reports of local media said that the family's 12-year- old daughter returned home after the murder, and ran to neighbors for help with her two younger brothers, who escaped the attack hiding in another room.
Danny Dayan, chairman of the settler organization Yesha Council, urged that the government and military should provide the settlers with more help and protection. "The time has come for the government to regain its senses and start backing up the settlement enterprise, which remains vulnerable on the frontlines, " Dayan said, according to the Post report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is harshly criticised by settlement groups in recent weeks after security forces clashed with settlers during demolition of a West Bank outpost on Feb. 28.
Itamar, home to over 100 Orthodox Jewish families, is surrounded by Palestinian territories, and has seen brutal attacks against Israeli settlers before. In June 2002, a Palestinian armed with rifle broke into a house in the settlement and killed a woman and her three children.
XINHUA
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