Terrorist murders father of five
A Palestinian terrorist murdered an Israeli father of five on Tuesday, stabbing him repeatedly and shooting him by the side of a road.
Eviatar Borovsky, who lived in the settlement of Yitzhar, was waiting at a hitchhiking point in the West Bank when Salam As’ad Zaghal reportedly took his life.
Gil Bismot, commander for the ZAKA rescue service, told The AJN that he and his team attempted resuscitation but all that was left to do was to “deal with the body and collect all remains”.
Zaghal was fresh out of prison, last month, after serving three years for offences including throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israelis. He apparently carried out the attack for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a military organisation with links to Fatah.
Borovsky was buried on Tuesday afternoon. His father Baruch eulogised him as a happy and energetic man. He was a religiously observant yeshivah gradate and an enthusiastic actor and was due to perform in a play this summer.
“This incident proves that even with the conditions that exist today, of relative quiet and security stability, under the surface there are many terrorists whom the IDF strikes day and night in order to defeat them,” said Tamir Yadai, the military division commander responsible for the crime scene.
The Israeli right and left were unified in its mourning for the victim and condemnation of the attack. Leftist groups expressed disdain for the argument used by some Palestinians that the presence of Israeli settlers in the West Bank justifies attacks against them.
“Contrary to certain Palestinian claims, attacks against civilians within Israel’s borders are no different from attacks against settlers living in the West Bank,” the B’Tselem human rights organisation declared in a statement.
It continued: “In both cases, the targets are civilians who must not be attacked and who must be protected from attacks. The fact that the settlements are illegal is entirely irrelevant to the status of their residents – settlers are civilians – and to the unequivocal prohibition of attacks that target them.”
But while Israel mourned as one, there were recriminations from some on the right, who blamed government policies. Gershon Mesika, head of the Samaria Regional Council, claimed that the attack was a “direct result” of policies that are too soft on Palestinians, including the removal of checkpoints.
On Tuesday evening mourning gave way to anxiety in Israel, as the chances of an escalation in Syria appeared to grow. American President Barack Obama said at a news conference that the US has evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria.
His admission, followed by a declaration that “we don’t know how they were used, when they were used”, comes a week after Israel military’s intelligence chief Itai Brun said that Syria has used chemical weapons. Israel’s security cabinet met for the first time this week to discuss the issue. Both Israel and the US consider chemical attacks in Syria a red line that could necessitate intervention.
NATHAN JEFFAY