Asher and Yonatan Palmer
Asher and Yonatan PalmerPalmer family

The grassroots Judea Residents' Council has revealed that a CT scan conducted on Asher Palmer, who was murdered with his baby son Yehonatan on Friday, as well as an autopsy conducted in the Abu Kabir forensic lab, both confirm that a rock hit his face and caused fractures in the front of his skull.

Boaz Haetzni, head of the Council and an IDF reserve lieutenant colonel, reacted emotionally on Sunday: "We feel like we have been betrayed. It is we who are persecuted – they destroy our homes, and they call these murderers "partners" [in security coordination, ed.]... We feel betrayed and deceived..."

"On the one hand, the main emphasis in Central Command policy is zero casualties among the Arab marauders. On the other hand they prevent IDF soldiers from acting with determination against the rock and boulder throwers along the roads even though it is clear that these are not innocent games – and in the end they tried to whitewash and deceive the public..."

"We demand that the IDF Chief of Staff and the Commissioner of Police order a thorough review of the way the IDF Spokesman and the Judea and Samaria Spokeswoman conduct themselves. They cause grave harm to security and to the reliability of the IDF and Israel Police." 

Malachi Levinger, Hevron Regional Council Head, demanded that the security forces put an end to the rock throwing, an affront to the sovereignty of the state of Israel. He reminded them that they are responsible for the safety of the tens of thousands of Jews who come to Hevron during the holiday period.

Sources in the Hevron Regional Council expressed the feeling that the facts were concealed so that there would be no disturbances while Prime Minister Netanyahu was in the United States, an unfortunate decision which they said caused the Palmer family and friends unnecessary anguish in the midst of grief at the tragedy.