By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 02, 2004
Palestinian Arabs mercilessly gunned down a pregnant Israeli mother and her four young daughters in a close range roadside shooting attack near southern Gaza’s Katif Bloc of Jewish communities Sunday afternoon.
The massacre took place as Likud Party members voted for or against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to uproot the Gazan Jews from their homes, and was seen by most as linked to the referendum.
Israel’s top security officials have been warning for months that the “Palestinian” terror machine would do everything in its power to make Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza a retreat under fire.
A family destroyed
The Israeli mother and her four children were brutally shot to death by two “Palestinian” terrorists as they traveled near the Kissufim Crossing – the main entry point into the Strip for residents of the Katif Bloc.
They were later identified as 34-year-old Tali Hatuel and her daughters Hila (11), Hadar (9), Roni (7) and Merav (2). Hatuel was pregnant with another child.
The decimated family will be laid to rest in Ashkelon Sunday evening.
Two IDF soldiers and a civilian were also wounded when an explosive device was detonated against troops attempting to evacuate the victims.
One soldier and the civilian were listed in moderate-to-serious condition and were taken into emergency surgery at Beersheva’s Soroka Hospital. The second soldier was listed as lightly wounded.
IDF troops managed to chase down and kill the two terrorists.
Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization and the Islamic Jihad terror group claimed joint credit for the murder. Hamas said it too was involved, Ynet reported.
According to Israeli Radio, a Hamas spokesman said that just as the “Palestinians” were successfully driving the Jews out of Gaza, they would drive them out of the rest of the land of Israel.
Retreat under fire
Israel’s senior echelon of security officials have been warning for months that Sharon’s intention to quit Gaza had already set in motion a “Palestinian” campaign to make any future withdrawal look like a retreat under fire.
The “Palestinians” would like to emulate the “victory” of Israel’s retreat from southern Gaza under heavy Hizballah artillery fire in May 2000.
That withdrawal, it is now widely believed, directly influenced the Palestinian Arabs to launch their own large-scale terrorist war against the Jewish state.
Creating the image that Israel had been chased out of Gaza would do more than anything to bolster the morale and numbers of the terrorist organizations, defense experts have cautioned.
Referendum may swing cabinet vote
As the Jewish mother and her children lay dead in their own blood on a cordoned off Gaza road, the Likud’s nearly 200,000 members were heading to the polls Sunday to vote on Sharon’s “disengagement” plan.
Polls conducted in the run up to the referendum indicated the plan would not pass.
Even if it does not, however, one of Sharon’s top advisors said at the weekend that the prime minister would still move forward with the evacuation of the Gaza Jewish community and four Samarian settlements.
In order to do so he will need Cabinet and Knesset approval.
While many of the Likud’s most influential ministers have given their reluctant support to Sharon’s plan, they are expected to vote against it should the plan be defeated in the referendum.