Move FM Global News

JERUSALEM – Israel has described the killing of an off-duty soldier near a settlement in the West Bank as a terrorist attack, while various Palestinian militant groups have described it as ‘an heroic act.’

The soldier, just 19 years of age, was discovered with stab wounds. He was identified as Dvir Sorek, who lived in the West Bank settlement of Ofra.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately labelled the apparent murder of the teen as a terrorist attack and vowed to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Israeli soldiers and police officers were searching the area near the Etzion settlement bloc in the early hours of Thursday morning when they found the man’s body.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, in a statement carried by The Associated Press, said that the soldier was a student in a pre-military Jewish seminary program and was neither armed nor in uniform. He said the military was investigating the circumstances of his death.

Rabbi Shlomo Wilk, who heads the yeshiva where Sorek studied, was quoted by Israel Army Radio as saying the student had gone to Jerusalem to buy presents for the school’s faculty. Wilk said Sorek had called a friend and said he would return on time.

“When he was late, we started to worry,” Wilk said. “Fairly quickly we understood that something wasn’t right and we got the police involved.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu was outraged at the attack. “This morning we were informed about a terrible stabbing attack. The security forces are currently in pursuit to apprehend the abhorrent terrorist and bring him to justice,” he said in a statement.

“Our destiny is to establish the Jewish people in its land and to ensure our sovereignty in our historical homeland. We know that the Land of Israel is acquired through tribulations.”

“Today fell one of the best of our sons from a family that has already sacrificed heavily for the Land of Israel,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“These reprehensible terrorists come to uproot; we come to plant. They come to destroy; we come to build. We will apprehend those who seek our lives and we will deepen our roots in all parts of our homeland.”

Hamas, which is not involved in the West Bank, but rules nearby Gaza, described the attack as a “practical response” to recent speculation that Israel is planning to annex parts of the West bank.

A statement from the group, carried by The Jerusalem Post claimed the off-duty soldier had “graduated” from a military college that advocates the ‘killing of Palestinians and seizure of their land.’

Hamas has called on the Palestinian Authority to cease security coordination with the Israeli army in the West Bank and to “side the with the Palestinians in defending their land.”

Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq, in praising the death of the soldier, accused Israel of “committing crimes and acts of terrorism against the Palestinian people.’ He said that such attacks send a message that the “occupation is on its way to ending,” according to the Post report.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem linked the murder to the recent demolitions of Palestinian homes in Wadi al-Hummus. “The Gush Etzion operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation, including the recent Wadi al-Hummus crime,” The Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying.

The Palestinian Authority however was taking a different line. While it did not condemn the attack, the PA said it was not in the interests of the Palestinian people. A Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah noted the murder of Sorek came on the eve of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.

“Our major concern now is that Israel would use the killing to escalate its security measures against our people, especially ahead of Eid al-Adha, which starts on Sunday,” the official said. “Whoever carried out this attack also acted against the interests of our people.”

Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, following the 1967 war.

The international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and in contravention of various UN resolutions.