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AN OFF-DUTY Israeli soldier has been found dead with stab wounds near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “terrorist” attack, sparking a manhunt.
Details were still emerging of the killing, but it risked raising Israeli-Palestinian tensions weeks ahead of a 17 September Israeli election.
It occurred between Bethlehem and the flashpoint city of Hebron in the West Bank.
“Today in the early morning hours, a soldier’s body was found with stabbing marks on it adjacent to a (Jewish) community north of Hebron,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
It later described it as a “terror attack” and identified the man killed as Dvir Sorek, 19. An army spokeswoman said he was not in uniform at the time.
Troops, police and the Shin Bet intelligence agency were searching the area, notably the nearby Palestinian town of Beij Fajjar.
The army said it had sent reinforcements to the West Bank.
Netanyahu called it “a serious stabbing attack.”
“Security forces are now in pursuit to capture the lowly terrorist and settle accounts with him,” he said in a statement.
Later in a visit to the Israeli settlement of Beit El near Ramallah in the West Bank, Netanyahu again spoke of the attack and pledged more settlement building.
The newly drafted soldier was a student at a yeshiva — or Jewish seminary — in the settlement of Migdal Oz, near where the body was found.
He was in a programme that combined military service with religious study, the seminary head told Israeli public radio.
“The soldier left for Jerusalem during the afternoon to buy a gift for his teachers,” rabbi Shlomo Wilk said.
He was in contact half an hour before he was murdered. He was on the bus to the yeshiva. About 100 metres from the bus stop, before he entered the settlement, he was murdered.
‘Dead or alive’
Israeli police were blocking access to the area around where the body was found and medics were at the scene, an AFP correspondent reported.
The body appeared to have been found around 30 to 40 metres outside the gate of the settlement.
In Beit Fajjar, dozens of Israeli security personnel arrived in around 20 vehicles and were going house-to-house while seizing security camera footage, an AFP correspondent reported.
Low-level clashes broke out between residents and the Israeli forces.
Palestinian attacks against Israeli security forces and settlers occur sporadically in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Such attacks, and the Israeli arrest raids that follow, often stoke tensions.
The incident came at a sensitive time, with Israel heading towards a general election on 17 September. It also occurred just ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.
Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid a major flare-up in either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip before the election, but he is likely to face political pressure to act firmly.
His main challenger, ex-armed forces chief Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White Alliance, spoke in stark terms.
“The (military) and Israeli security forces will know how to get their hands on these loathsome terrorists, dead or alive,” he said in a statement.
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad welcomed the attack and called it a: “natural reaction to the occupation’s terrorism and crimes against the rights of our people, our land and our holy places.”
Around 600,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem next to some three million Palestinians.
Netanyahu pledged in April to annex settlements in the West Bank, which would be a deeply controversial move.
Annexing settlements on a large-scale could be the death knell to already fading hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Earlier this week, Israel advanced plans for more than 2,300 settlement homes, leading to firm criticism from the UN envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nickolay Mladenov.
He said settlement expansion was a “flagrant violation of international law” and called for it to “cease immediately and completely.”
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Feel sorry for both the soldier and his family but what do you expect when you keep expanding settlements in occupied territory? And how many is Benny gonna kill (innocent and not) in response? Definition of madness definitely applies.
@GrahamMManning: everything before the word “but” is meaningless from you.
@Seamus Mac: so you don’t care about the soldier or his family? That’s kinda heartless but to each his own.
RIP
@Clifford Brennan: you occupy other people’s land, you’re a legitimate target.
@De20: Sadly, his grandfather (a rabbi) was murdered a number of years ago too. Neither were wearing military uniforms when they were murdered. No doubt this young lads peyot was provocation enough for his killers.
@Clifford Brennan: Actually, I just read that he had yet to begin miltary training or active service. Poor lad.
@Clifford Brennan: a terrorist in its truest form.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Totally agree for once. Whoever abducted and murdered this young man did so purely because he was identifiably Jewish.
@Clifford Brennan: Jewish!? Who mentioned anything about religion!? You’re desperate to make this into a religious issue. Do you not recognise international law and consider the West Bank to be illegally occupied? Simple question.
Shouldn’t have been there in the first place. If there was Israeli respect for international law this chap would be still alive.
Time to shoot some women and children I guess.
@Dave Thomas: It’s Hamas that are putting these women and children at risk.
@Mike: yes, it’s all Hamas’ fault when innocent women and children are murdered…everytime. Shur they’re practically pushing them out into the street with big X signs on them.
@Mike: did the israelis feed you that line?
@Mike: “It’s Hamas that are putting these women and children at risk”
The West Bank is controlled by Fatah not Hamas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_government
Control of Palestinian territories is split between Hamas and Fatah after disputed elections in 2006. Those elesections were held as part of a peace process brokered by the United States, it was hoped that Fatah would win and they would recognise a two state solution, but Hamas won a landslide in Gaza and lost election in the West Bank. Fatah were ousted from Gaza, following the 2007 Battle for Gaza, and Hamas took over. Hamas does not recognise Israel’s right to exist whereas Fatah is willing to recognise Israel if part of a two state solution.
@Mike: how do you explain the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians before Hamas existed ? Hamas was founded in 1987 but yet isreal was slaughtering Palestinians long before this. Strange how it’s all Hamas’ fault
@Dave Thomas: they already have been shooting women and children. Irish media just don’t report their murders.
Soldiers who invade a country should expect to be killed.
@JayK: he was off duty and not in uniform?have some empathy you commie
@Josh Gilman: Then how is it terrorism as opposed to murder??
@JayK: they are defending their own country. It’s called Israel, not Palestine.
@Seamus Murphy: ppl in the west bank aren’t allowed to defend against their homes being bulldozed though. Sounds fair.
@Seamus Murphy: Countries don’t get to just keep expanding on to other countries’ land. There is nothing legitimate about Israel. They take land by force through state-sponsored and American-enabled terrorism.
@Seamus Murphy: Defending? The West Bank is occupied. It’s expansion. Go get a map, and read the treaty agreements Israel signed.
@Josh Gilman: combatants not in uniform are treated as spies.
Occupying terrorist killed.
What a terribly tragic situation over there. Almost impossible to see an end. Netanyahu’s main opposition is making comments about catching the “terrorists” “dead or alive” so it would appear there is no peaceful voice on any side either in government or opposition. It’s constantly going to be an aggressive stance which will get no one anywhere productive. On the other hand you have the Palestinians saying that this cold blooded murder was a natural reaction. No condemnation, only praise for what is a terrible thing in any right thinking persons eyes. The hatred over there on both sides seems like it will never end and the answers from both sides for every tragic event is whataboutery which again goes nowhere. Wish I could believe it will get better but I don’t
@Mick Murphy: It’s not tragic. It’s barbaric and Israel is the aggressor. Just like the “great hunger” or “famine” here was not tragic. It was barbaric. It was violence through food deprivation while our aggressors stole our food and sent it abroad.
Of course Palestinians hate the people beating them out of their homes to build their own “settlements” in their place. That is absolutely abhorrent behaviour and should never have been tolerated by the international community.
You’re wrong to paint this as a two-way street.
@Joe Phillips: granted Joe I don’t have enough knowledge on the subject to profer an educated opinion. I only know the nuts and bolts of the situation and you may be perfectly correct in saying it’s not a two way street. The point I was making is the loss of human life, to me, in any circumstance is tragic. To read comments such as “legitimate target” saddens me. Man’s inhumanity to man is a terrible thing. I’m sure most on here will label me a snowflake or some such modern term for feeling like this but frankly I’m too old to give a shit about that type of thing.
@Mick Murphy: I agree with you there, and anyone who uses the word ‘snowflake’, unless they’re talking about a frozen raindrop, deserves no time or attention from anyone. They will have nothing to contribute to the conversation. The world saddens me terribly too, by the way.
@Joe Phillips: I’m glad to hear that Joe and on re-reading my original comment I can see how it could appear that I was passively/aggressively condoning Israeli behaviour. That definitely wasn’t my intention. I was making a general observation on how sad the whole thing is. I know there are commenters on here with varying agendas and apologise if I came across as such.
@Mick Murphy: No problem. I too wish everyone could just get along. For all our “progress” in terms of technology and medicine, a large part of the human race seems to have regressed when it comes to compassion and humanity. Your heart is in the right place, I reckon. Unfortunately I think the good folk just don’t hold enough of a majority anymore
@Joe Phillips: Ain’t that the truth! The world today has all the news (and horror) at the touch of a button. I believe barbarity is part of the human condition. A quick flick through any period in history shows just how terrible we can be as a race. But in this modern era with all the education we have, all the technology and medicine you mentioned, we really have the ability and means to do amazing things worldwide for everyone. But be it jingoism, nationalism, religion or just plain old greed we are as divided as we have ever been. Right now it feels as though there is an undercurrent of particularly bad feeling throughout the world. All has gone to black and white, you hate Trump or love him as an example. Grey areas and intelligent debate seems to be dying away. I hope for better
@Mick Murphy @joe philips: separate from the content, nice to see an actual insult free debate.
@Mick Murphy: Well said. I hope for better too.
@GrahamMManning: I found it quite refreshing myself!
Cheers lads
How many Palestinians are killed weekly and not a word about it? But there only Palestinians right, poor Israel soldiers terrible
2 five-year old Palestinian girls getting murdered by intentionally being run over by an illegal Israeli settler recently. A 7 year old Palestinian boy getting sniped in the head with a special bullet designed to explode in contact. These recent occurrences weren’t important enough to warrant an article from this website. In fact, no Palestinian death has. Now here I am reading an article on the death of a man belonging to the rogue army, an illegally occupier and an oppresser of people. What a rag!
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