SICKOS: Men share candy in Rafah yesterday to celebrate the killing of a West Bank Jewish family. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Israeli officials are sweeping through West Bank settlements in a manhunt for the killers of a Jewish couple and three of their children found stabbed in their home early yesterday.
The five family members were knifed in their beds as they slept in their house in the West Bank town of Itamar.
The victims were Udi Fogel, 36, his wife, Ruth, 35, and three of their six children: Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and 3-month-old Hadas, local papers reported yesterday.
The grisly slayings occurred sometime during the Jewish Sabbath late Friday night, military officials said. It’s unknown if the murders, deemed a “terror attack” by the Israeli military, was carried out by a lone assailant or several killers.
The couple’s 12-year-old daughter, Tamar, discovered the gruesome crime when she returned home from a youth meeting at around midnight.
A neighbor helped her get inside, where she found her parents and three siblings slain amid blood-soaked toys and overturned furniture.
Tamar’s two other siblings, Roi, 8, and 2-year-old Yishai, survived because they slept in another room. The three children are now with their grandparents.
The funeral for their family is to take place today. The Israeli military immediately launched a search of the area, and set up checkpoints in surrounding settlements. In a rare show of cooperation, Palestinian officials sent security forces to join the manhunt.
Military police said they had made some arrests, but wouldn’t provide details.
The attack, the deadliest in years, comes as pressure is building on Israel to launch a new peace initiative and Palestinians push for world recognition of an independent state — with or without a peace deal.
Israel announced early today that it had approved hundreds of additional settlements in the West Bank. The construction of settlements has been a major sticking point in peace negotiations.
In Gaza, a Hamas official applauded the attack, and local residents celebrated the killing of the settlers.