A husband and wife, Yaniv, 26, and Sharon, 25, Ben-Shalom of Ofarim, were murdered last night in a precisely-targeted shooting attack on the Jerusalem-Modiin highway. A third passenger, Doron Sviri, Sharon\'s brother, was very seriously injured, and doctors are fighting to save his life. The couple\'s two baby girls, Efrat and Shachar, 18 and 8 months old, respectively, were lightly injured, and are expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow or the next day.
After some initial confusion, it is now assumed that the snipers shot at the Ben-Shaloms\' car not far from the Dor gas station - the only major landmark on that stretch of the highway. It is further assumed that they implemented unusual measures, which were not publicized, in order to achieve such precise results. The family was on its way home to Ofarim, in western Binyamin north of Kiryat Sefer and Nili. In her last act, Sharon protected her two babies from the bullets by lying atop them, thus saving their lives.
Following the attack, the IDF clamped a closure on two nearby Arab villages. The operative assumption was that the terrorists had escaped southwards to Ramallah. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that Route 443, the site of the murderous attack, was the scene of lively traffic this morning, and that the IDF has reinforced its presence there with tanks and other forces. Arab cars are forbidden in most cases from travelling the road.
Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson reports that terrorists carried out another attack in the same area this past Tuesday night. After a period of relative quiet there, terrorists hid on the southern side of the highway not far from the gas station and shot at a passing Israeli car. Bullets hit the vehicle, but no one was hurt.
Ezra Ben-Shoham, Chairman of Ofarim\'s Local Council, told Arutz-7 today that never before had Ofarim suffered a loss of life from Arab terrorism. He said that the couple \"was very much involved in community life, and Yaniv - who was religious - taught Torah to children of Ofarim.\" The 12-year-old town is a mixed community of both religious and secular residents, and currently numbers 230 families. Ben-Shoham said that it is not yet clear who will take responsibility for the baby daughters.
Arutz-7\'s Ariel Kahane spoke today with Mrs. Yehudit Dasberg of Alon Shvut. Her daughter and son-in law Effie and Yaron Ungar were murdered by Arab terrorists about five years ago in a drive-by shooting, and Mrs. Dasberg and her husband Rabbi Uri Dasberg raised their two little orphan sons. Kahane asked, \"You said at the time that you would raise them to remember their parents, but also to be happy children. Have you succeeded?\" She responded,
\"Yes, with G-d\'s help, I can say that we have succeeded in both. Yeshai was only nine months old, so of course he has no direct memories, and Dvir [who was about 2] also hardly remembers; although I clearly recall one time when he had a flash of memory of his father. Otherwise, they know them only from pictures and from our stories... The Ben-Shalom children are the same ages as were Dvir and Yeshai…\" When asked how she dealt with her own personal grief at the time, she answered simply, \"We had to put aside our personal feelings of grief for our children in order to achieve the more important objective… The desire to do what is \'right and good,\' to do what is best for the children, overcame our natural instinct to concentrate on our wish that things would have turned out differently...\"
It was noted that the Ben-Shaloms are at least the eighth Israeli or Jewish couple to be killed together in violent circumstances in the past eight months. Three couples were felled by terrorists - Binyamin and Talya Kahane, Mordechai and Tzila Schijveschuurder, and now the Ben-Shaloms, and at least three were killed in car accidents, including the parents of a family touring in Ireland. A husband-and-wife from New York was killed in a helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon only two weeks ago, and another married couple died in the Versailles wedding hall crash three months ago.
Many other Palestinian attacks also occurred last night: Arabs threw over 70 grenades at an army outpost in southern Gaza, and nearby military positions were repeatedly targeted with live fire and grenades. The soldiers returned fire; no one was hurt... A mortar shell was launched into an open area of a northern-Gaza community today... A bomb went off in Gross Square, on the border of the Jewish Community of Hevron; no one was hurt. The army re-imposed a closure on the Arab residents of the city...
After some initial confusion, it is now assumed that the snipers shot at the Ben-Shaloms\' car not far from the Dor gas station - the only major landmark on that stretch of the highway. It is further assumed that they implemented unusual measures, which were not publicized, in order to achieve such precise results. The family was on its way home to Ofarim, in western Binyamin north of Kiryat Sefer and Nili. In her last act, Sharon protected her two babies from the bullets by lying atop them, thus saving their lives.
Following the attack, the IDF clamped a closure on two nearby Arab villages. The operative assumption was that the terrorists had escaped southwards to Ramallah. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that Route 443, the site of the murderous attack, was the scene of lively traffic this morning, and that the IDF has reinforced its presence there with tanks and other forces. Arab cars are forbidden in most cases from travelling the road.
Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson reports that terrorists carried out another attack in the same area this past Tuesday night. After a period of relative quiet there, terrorists hid on the southern side of the highway not far from the gas station and shot at a passing Israeli car. Bullets hit the vehicle, but no one was hurt.
Ezra Ben-Shoham, Chairman of Ofarim\'s Local Council, told Arutz-7 today that never before had Ofarim suffered a loss of life from Arab terrorism. He said that the couple \"was very much involved in community life, and Yaniv - who was religious - taught Torah to children of Ofarim.\" The 12-year-old town is a mixed community of both religious and secular residents, and currently numbers 230 families. Ben-Shoham said that it is not yet clear who will take responsibility for the baby daughters.
Arutz-7\'s Ariel Kahane spoke today with Mrs. Yehudit Dasberg of Alon Shvut. Her daughter and son-in law Effie and Yaron Ungar were murdered by Arab terrorists about five years ago in a drive-by shooting, and Mrs. Dasberg and her husband Rabbi Uri Dasberg raised their two little orphan sons. Kahane asked, \"You said at the time that you would raise them to remember their parents, but also to be happy children. Have you succeeded?\" She responded,
\"Yes, with G-d\'s help, I can say that we have succeeded in both. Yeshai was only nine months old, so of course he has no direct memories, and Dvir [who was about 2] also hardly remembers; although I clearly recall one time when he had a flash of memory of his father. Otherwise, they know them only from pictures and from our stories... The Ben-Shalom children are the same ages as were Dvir and Yeshai…\" When asked how she dealt with her own personal grief at the time, she answered simply, \"We had to put aside our personal feelings of grief for our children in order to achieve the more important objective… The desire to do what is \'right and good,\' to do what is best for the children, overcame our natural instinct to concentrate on our wish that things would have turned out differently...\"
It was noted that the Ben-Shaloms are at least the eighth Israeli or Jewish couple to be killed together in violent circumstances in the past eight months. Three couples were felled by terrorists - Binyamin and Talya Kahane, Mordechai and Tzila Schijveschuurder, and now the Ben-Shaloms, and at least three were killed in car accidents, including the parents of a family touring in Ireland. A husband-and-wife from New York was killed in a helicopter crash in the Grand Canyon only two weeks ago, and another married couple died in the Versailles wedding hall crash three months ago.
Many other Palestinian attacks also occurred last night: Arabs threw over 70 grenades at an army outpost in southern Gaza, and nearby military positions were repeatedly targeted with live fire and grenades. The soldiers returned fire; no one was hurt... A mortar shell was launched into an open area of a northern-Gaza community today... A bomb went off in Gross Square, on the border of the Jewish Community of Hevron; no one was hurt. The army re-imposed a closure on the Arab residents of the city...