An Israeli Sergeant Is Shot Dead in the West Bank as a Second Is Remembered By ISABEL KERSHNER Published: September 22, 2013 BAT YAM, Israel — An Israeli soldier was fatally shot in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday, apparently by a Palestinian sniper, in the second deadly attack on the Israeli military this weekend. Killings of Israelis have become relatively rare in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While there appeared to be no direct link between the two latest episodes, they jolted Israeli complacency, fed popular distrust of Palestinians and deepened skepticism about the recently resumed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Naftali Bennett, a right-wing minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, called for a re-examination of the government’s decision to release batches of long-serving Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli jails in the coming months as part of the American-brokered peace effort. The Israeli military identified the latest victim as Sgt. Gabriel Koby, 20, from the city of Tirat Hacarmel and said in a statement that he was hit by direct gunfire aimed at a group of soldiers who were guarding the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the thousands of civilians visiting the city for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Barely two hours before the Hebron shooting, another Israeli soldier, Sgt. Tomer Hazan, 20, was buried in a military cemetery near the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam. Sergeant Hazan was killed Friday by a Palestinian man with whom the sergeant worked at a restaurant and who lured him to the West Bank. Angry Israelis demonstrating Sunday night outside the Bat Yam restaurant where both Sergeant Hazan and his killer had worked held a sign reading, “Bibi is good for terrorists,” using the prime minister’s nickname. In a move apparently intended to appease the right wing, Mr. Netanyahu gave the go-ahead for Jews to move into a building they recently bought in Hebron, saying, “We will continue with one hand to fight terrorism and terrorists, and with the other hand, to strengthen Jewish settlement.” Earlier on Sunday, Bat Yam residents lighted memorial candles on the sidewalk outside the shuttered shawarma restaurant, Tzahi Meats, arranging them to spell out the dead soldier’s name in Hebrew. The restaurant owner has come under attack for having hired a Palestinian worker who, Israeli authorities said, did not hold a valid permit for working in Israel. A banner hanging outside the restaurant announced that it would be closed for the coming week as a token of shared grief with the family of Sergeant Hazan, who served in an administrative day job in the Air Force’s pilotless drone unit. “Is that what Tomer’s life is worth? A week?” said one local resident who asked to be identified only by her first name, Kalanit, to avoid tensions with her neighbors. “Arabs should not be employed in this town, period,” she added. Sergeant Hazan’s death touched a nerve in a country where most 18-year-olds are drafted for years of compulsory military service. It came amid many warnings by the Israeli military of Palestinian plots to abduct Israeli soldiers. Israeli security officials said that Nidal Amer, 42, who confessed to killing Sergeant Hazan and concealing his body in a water well, told investigators that he had hoped to trade the soldier’s body for the release of a brother who is serving a 30-year term in an Israeli prison for his role in attacks on Israelis. It remained unclear how Mr. Amer persuaded the soldier to share a taxi with him to just outside Beit Amin, where most of the suspect’s family lives. There was speculation in Israel that the soldier had been tempted by what he thought would be some kind of lucrative deal. Sergeant Hazan and Mr. Amer had lived not far from one another in the four months since Mr. Amer came to work at Tzahi Meats, where the soldier often served customers and made deliveries in the afternoons after getting off from his army job. Mr. Amer has a wife and eight children in the Arab-Israeli town of Jaljulia in central Israel, but people living and working in the vicinity of Tzahi Meats said he stayed mostly with other Arab workers in an apartment in a rundown building nearby. Nobody was in the first-floor apartment on Sunday, but T-shirts with the Tzahi Meats logo, a pair of jeans and several towels hung on a washing line. Sergeant Hazan’s family apartment is within walking distance of the restaurant. Yarin Palas, 19, who works a couple of doors from Tzahi Meats, said Mr. Amer had prepared his lunch sandwich every day. Like many neighbors here who knew Sergeant Hazan and Mr. Amer, Mr. Palas described Mr. Amer as a friendly type who never aroused suspicion. But Mr. Palas recalled one conversation with Mr. Amer that, with hindsight, had taken on a dark overtone. “Once he asked me if I was a soldier,” Mr. Palas said. “It seems he was looking for a soldier.” Despite their physical proximity, Sergeant Hazan and Mr. Amer came from very different worlds. Mr. Amer appears to have been partly estranged from much of his family. His wife of 18 years, Najat Qremta, said he had more or less abandoned her and their children. He had stopped paying rent on their apartment a few years ago, so she and her children live in one windowless room. Relatives in Beit Amin said Mr. Amer spent most of his time in Israel and visited only once every month or two. Mr. Amer’s mother, Fatima, 74, said he had come to the house on Friday afternoon carrying a bag. He was silent, smoked a lot and looked tired, she said. His father, Abdullah, said: “It is against our principles to kill a man who gave you his trust. It does not matter if he is Jewish or non-Jewish.” On a steep hill in the West Bank, a farmer pointed out the shallow well with a single bloodstain where he said Sergeant Hazan’s body had been hidden. The sergeant was known as a kind, fun-loving young man who was well loved by his family and friends. Relatives who eulogized him in the crowded cemetery described him as an enthusiastic participant in the noisy karaoke parties that are popular in Bat Yam. One of his three brothers, Ophir, described Sergeant Hazan in the eulogy as the family’s fashion and hairstyle consultant who was always in motion. Whenever he told his brother to slow down and rest, he said, Sergeant Hazan replied, “You only live once.” Said Ghazali contributed reporting from Jaljulia, Israel, and Beit Amin, West Bank; Nayef Hashlamoun from Hebron, West Bank; and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 05:30:16 +0000