The murderers of the four victims on Friday fled to the nearby PLO-controlled village of Yata, and an IDF manhunt for the terrorists is still underway. The village is under curfew. The Al-Aqsa Brigade of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the murderous shootings.



The Yesha Council - the Council of Communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - released one of the only official reactions to the murders, calling on the government to use the attack as a turning point in its war against terrorism. The Councils demand the expulsion of the residents of Yata - a village that has been a hotbed of anti-Jewish terrorism for years - and the destruction of the illegal bloc of homes nearby where the terrorists hid.



Southern Mt. Hevron officials demanded that the army enter the villages and clear them totally of the thousands of weapons held there.



MK Michael Kleiner (Herut) said after the violent funeral in Hevron today,

\"If the government does not take action to bring about a clear military defeat of terrorism, more and more frustrated Jews will do it using the \'Do It Yourself\' system. The government can and should bomb the terrorists\' \'cities of refuge\', just like the Americans did in Tora Bora and NATO did in Serbia. It is better to receive condemnations and know that we did what we could to save Jewish lives, rather than be praised and count our dead bodies.\"