The police continue to investigate the murder of Kibbutz Manara\'s security officer Yitzchak Kvartach and the accompanying theft of several dozen weapons and much ammunition. The police say that they are still in the dark about what occurred, but the GSS is reported to believe that it was an act of terrorism with ominous consequences for future attacks. Officials say that the act was planned very cleverly, as it involved finding one of the three men who hold the key to the kibbutz armory, forcing him to the site, killing him, and making off with some 70 pieces of weaponry - all without being detected. This is all the stranger given the proximity of Manara to the Lebanese border - about five meters away - and the presence of IDF soldiers stationed at fixed and mobile positions very close by. Another disturbing aspect is the fact that the security officer was out of phone and pager contact for five days, yet no one in the kibbutz felt that anything was amiss.
Police investigators say that their efforts now will concentrate chiefly on intelligence: \"We will be looking for the weapons, and listening for any information on them. It\'s not so easy to move such a large quantity of guns around...\"
Members of the kibbutz along the Lebanese border report that Kvartach fought in the battle for Ammunition Hill (now near Jerusalem\'s Ramat Eshkol neighborhood) in the Six Day War in 1967, and that he was wounded in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Kvartach was a 55-year-old bachelor who was believed to have been on vacation with relatives until a few hours before his dead body was discovered yesterday. His funeral in Kfar Saba this afternoon was attended by many senior military personnel and security officials.
Police investigators say that their efforts now will concentrate chiefly on intelligence: \"We will be looking for the weapons, and listening for any information on them. It\'s not so easy to move such a large quantity of guns around...\"
Members of the kibbutz along the Lebanese border report that Kvartach fought in the battle for Ammunition Hill (now near Jerusalem\'s Ramat Eshkol neighborhood) in the Six Day War in 1967, and that he was wounded in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Kvartach was a 55-year-old bachelor who was believed to have been on vacation with relatives until a few hours before his dead body was discovered yesterday. His funeral in Kfar Saba this afternoon was attended by many senior military personnel and security officials.