Posted on 05/02/2004 2:07:48 PM PDT by yonif
"On Friday my daughters drew me a picture, and on it they wrote: daddy we are proud of you," David Hatuel said at the funeral for his wife Tali, and daughters Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, Merav, 2. Tali was eight months pregnant.
Thousands of mourners attended the funeral in Ashkelon for the slain family. They were were shot dead Sunday after two terrorists opened fire at Israeli cars traveling near the Kissufim Crossing at the entrance to the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip.
The five were laid to rest 6.30 pm on Sunday at the new cemetery in Ashkelon. Tali's husband David, a school principal in Ashkelon, was not with the family at the time of the attack and is left on his own.
President Moshe Katsav attended the funeral. "A whole family is wiped out because Arafat does not care about the Palestinian people or the Israeli people," said Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin.
Two soldiers and an Israeli civilian were also wounded in the attack and were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheba.
"This can simply be labelled a massacre of innocent children," government spokesman Avi Pazner said. "Arafat and Hamas will spare us no horror in trying to stop the political process from going forward," Pazner told AFP.
The IDF said that both of the gunmen, who arrived at the area by car, were killed in an ensuing firefight.
The Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees claimed joint responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge the assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Yassin and Rantisi. The 'Resistance Committees' is a group associated with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. There has been no statement from the Palestinian Authority regarding the attack.
The two Palestinians who carried out the attack were identified as Ibrahim Hamad and Faisal Abu Naqirah both from Rafiah.
Police said the white Citroen station wagon, carrying the family, spun off the road after the initial shooting, then the attackers approached the vehicle and shot the occupants at close range.
The car was riddled with bullets, and the carpet inside was stained with blood. Israel Radio reported the mother had been on her way to protest against Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan. On the car was a bumper sticker saying, "Uprooting the settlements, victory for terror."
The terrorists arrived by car from the nearby Palestinian village of Dir al Ballah and began to fire at passing Israeli vehicles, consequently killing the mother and her four children. Another Israeli traveling in the opposite direction, was also wounded.
An IDF force arrived at the scene and charged the gunmen, killing them. During the gun battle two soldiers were moderately and lightly wounded, and an explosion took place but it was still unclear whether it was caused by a grenade or by a bomb.
The two soldiers wounded during the gun battle and were airlifted to Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva together with the Israeli civilian.
The army said it had received a terror alert about 20 minutes before the attack, and had bolstered its forces in the area, Isarel Radio reported.
OC Southern Command Maj.Gen. Dan Harel told reporters that the shooting was the first attack in which civilians who use the Kissufim Road were hurt in the past 18 months and noted that just days ago several hundred meters away a terrorist driving in a car rigged with 300 kilograms of explosives blew up near IDF soldiers wounding three.
"We'll have to do more to give an answer to the terror attacks," he said.
Speaking to reporters at the Kissufim crossing, Harel said soldiers manning positions on the side of the road shot the terrorists hitting one on the south side of the road and the second on the north side. The company commander with extra forces reached the site and shot and killed them. "We will investigate the incident and draw the necessary conclusions and I hope that it will be the last time Israeli civilians and soldiers are harmed," he said.
The terror groups said the attack was in response to Israel's recent assassinations of the founder of the Hamas, 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 CNN crew driving in a bullet-proof vehicle stopped on the road and tried to prevent other cars from proceeding into the gunmen's line of fire.
Following the attack, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz canceled his participation in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Center of Human Dignity Museum of Tolerance, sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in Jerusalem Sunday.
Settler leaders said that the attack proves that Likud members must vote against the disengagement plan in order not to give a prize to terrorists.
"People have to look us in the eyes and not throw us out of our houses," Avner Shimoni, a Gaza settler leader, told Army Radio. "We paid a very heavy price today."
Cabinet minister Gideon Ezra said it underscored the hopeless burden of staying in Gaza. "Our soldiers can't be in every car that moves in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"Thousands of soldiers are required to protect" the settlers, he said. "I would put our soldiers in other places."
Meanwhile Sunday, the Likud referendum on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan opened at 8 AM with polls to close at 10 PM. Final results will be announced at 2AM Monday.
443 polls have been set up for the 193, 000 card-carrying Likud members who are eligible to vote. Roughly 1, 300 security guards and police will secure the proceedings throughout the country. 176 lawyers have been tasked with overseeing the vote's legality.
Matthew Gutman and AP contributed to the report.
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