Israelis hunt settler family's killer

Israeli troops are today hunting the killer of five members of an Israeli settler family in the West Bank. Local media reports that a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11 years old, and their parents were stabbed to death in their beds.

Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini

Army radio said two children aged four and two had been spared and a third, a girl of 10, had discovered the massacre when she arrived home and alerted neighbours.

The killer or killers had managed to get past an electric fence surrounding the settlement, the radio said.

Suspicion immediately fell on Palestinians and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas punish those responsible for the murders.

No individual or organisation has claimed responsibility, although the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group said that “it symbolises the right of resistance against the [Israeli] occupation and its crimes”.

Tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the area have been extremely high in recent days.

On Monday, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinians after they clashed with settlers near Nablus.

A week earlier, police clashed with settlers nearby. Settlers reacted by firebombing a Palestinian house

They also smashed up shops and cars in the southern city of Hebron and cut down 500 olive tree saplings.