02/05/2004 16:20 By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz &BPI, Service Five members of an Israeli family – a mother and her four children – were killed Sunday afternoon in a Palestinian shooting attack on their vehicle while they were traveling on the road that leads to the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif. The victims of the attack were identified as mother Tali Hatuel, 34, and her daughters Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and Merav, 2. Tali Hatuel was a social worker for the Gaza Coast Regional Council. She was eight months pregnant, Israel Radio reported. The Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella organization of militant groups, claimed responsibility for the „heroic” attack in a call to The Associated Press. The two terrorists were named as Ibrahim Hamed and Faisal Abuntera, residents of Rafah in the southern Strip. Police said the white Citroen station wagon spun off the road after the initial shooting, then the attackers approached the vehicle and shot the occupants at close range. Another Israeli civilian, a resident of Ohad in the Eshkol region, traveling in a separate car suffered moderate gunfire wounds in the attack near the Netzer Hazani settlement. He manage to put his car in reverse and flee the scene of the attack.
IDF troops were called to the scene and killed the two terrorists. Two Givati Brigade infantrymen suffered serious-to-moderate wounds during the exchange of fire with the gunmen. An explosive device was detonated near the site of the shooting while the IDF troops were chasing the terrorists, but it caused no injuries. The wounded were airlifted by air force helicopter to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. Israeli tanks moved into the area following the attack, and army bulldozers reportedly destroyed a number of buildings near the road. The Resistance Committees said the attack was in response to Israel’s recent assassinations of the founder of the Hamas militant group, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. „The attack is part of the Palestinian reprisals for the daily crimes committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people, especially the killings of Yassin and Rantisi,” the group said. A resident of Gush Katif settlement Kfar Darom said the family was on its way to campaign against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. The attack took place the same day as the party referendum on the pullout from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the attack was the Palestinians’ method of disrupting the disengagement plan. The prime minister said Israel would continue to fight Palestinian terror. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz canceled scheduled appearances Sunday and planned to convene with top security officials to plan a response to the attack, military sources said. Likud MK Yuval Steinitz reacted to the attack and said it did not make the disengagement plan any less necessary. Likud MK Ehud Yatom said the attack must enhance the fierce opposition to plan to withdraw and evacuate the settlements from the Gaza Strip. The attack was the first to kill civilians in Gaza in more than a year. CNN: Film crew tried to warn family CNN said the Palestinian terrorists opened fire on one of its film crews working near Gush Katif in Gaza. The film crew was not wounded because they were travelling in an armored vehicle, CNN said. The CNN crew also told Israel Radio that after fleeing the terrorists, they attempted to warn and stop unsuspecting Israeli civilian vehicles leaving Gush Katif in the direction of the terrorists. They did not successfully stop the mother and four daughters who drove past the armored CNN vehicle and were subsequently gunned down by the terrorists. BPI.
