Elad Winkelstein, 35, Rachel Cohen, 73, and Aliza Reiz, 70, were murdered on Monday by Arab terrorists on Highway 55 near the village of Al-Funduq in Samaria. The IDF disclosed that the attack took place shortly after the soldiers manning a makeshift military checkpoint on the highway completed their mission around 9:20 AM and left the scene. Like clockwork, two terrorists arrived moments later in a vehicle, pulled over, got out, and opened fire on Israeli vehicles traveling on the highway.
The Samaria Development Company bus camera shows the terrorists exiting their vehicle and opening fire at point-blank range at a vehicle traveling on the highway. They then fled toward Shechem via Highway 55. The bus driver, Yosef Meir, said he saw three terrorists standing on the road and shooting at him.
עומדים בצד הדרך ויורים: תיעוד חדש של הפיגוע הבוקר בכפר פונדוק בשומרון@hod_barel pic.twitter.com/Asb72CmRZN
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IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi arrived at the scene of the attack and promised that the army would lay its hands on the terrorists; he also announced that the army would pave a bypass route around Al-Funduq.
The heads of the local councils were not impressed. In fact, they were angry at the Chief of Staff’s promises, seeing as for years Jewish settlers have been demanding bypass routes and checkpoints to prevent the smooth passage of terrorists.
The head of Yesha Council, Yisrael Gantz, attacked the Chief of Staff, saying, “The promise to catch the lone terrorist and pave a bypass road are signs of a failure to learn the lessons from the October 7 debacle.”
“A year and a half ago, the terrorist incidents at the Gaza perimeter fence were called demonstrations. Now they are talking about chasing a lone terrorist and paving a bypass road? The Chief of Staff’s words show that while the diskette was replaced on all fronts, in Judea and Samaria the message was not internalized. This attack was stopped in Samaria before it reached the Sharon Valley (inside green-line Israel). We are not a disconnected arena. This is not just a threat to the residents of Judea and Samaria but to the residents of the entire country,” Gantz added.
In related incidents, on Monday night, several dozen settlers marched on the village of Haja, near the scene of the murderous attack, and set fire to a car belonging to a local resident. WAFA cited a local source who claimed the settlers also attacked the village of Fara’ata and gathered at the traffic light intersection near Al-Funduq, and along the road leading to the villages of Jinsafut, Immatain, and Fara’ata. Settlers also reportedly attacked the outskirts of the town of Turmus Ayya and set fire to an agricultural farm.
Haaretz reported that the settler’s vengeance attacks took place despite the reinforcement of IDF and Shin Bet forces in Judea and Samaria in an attempt to prevent acts of revenge for the terrorist murders.
