They mourned in silence until the gravediggers lowered the five bodies into the ground, then their fury exploded. “Death to Arabs,” the crowd shouted. “You murder them and dig their graves?”
Emotions ran high as thousands bade farewell in Jerusalem yesterday to the three children and their parents killed while they slept in their home at a settlement on Friday. Police said that the killer got through the security fence of the Itamar settlement on the West Bank and broke into the Fogel family’s home.
The intruder killed Elad, 4, and Yoav, 11, whose bodies were found on the floor near to the beds where they slept. Udi Fogel, the father, was found in his bed cradling his three-month-old baby Hadas. Both had their throats cut. Ruthie, the mother, was believed to have run for her husband’s gun. Her body was found with the most severe wounds.
The family’s daughter, 12, was away and returned at midnight to find the doors bolted. She went to a neighbour’s house to seek help. “She entered the house first and she saw her parents, her brothers . . . she was screaming and crying,” said the neighbour who opened the door with her.
She discovered that two of her younger brothers had been spared. One of them, aged two, was crying over the body of his mother and trying to shake her awake. “We know what tragedies are, what terrorism is, but this story — it strikes at the heart of every person in Israel in a different way,” said Gershon Masika, of the local council. The killer has not yet been caught.
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The murders have shocked and angered Israelis. Police estimated that 20,000 attended the funerals. Thousands more took part in demonstrations. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, announced that the Government had approved 500 new settlement homes in the West Bank in response to the murders.