Manhunt underway for terrorists who killed soldier
Yeshiva student’s body found predawn in Gush Etzion • IDF: No kidnapping attempt • Hamas praises attacker
IDF troops scoured the West Bank on Thursday for the killers of Dvir Sorek, 18, who was stabbed multiple times and whose body was found on the rocky ground a short distance away from the security gate of Kibbutz Migdal Oz in the Gush Etzion region.
“This is a serious terror attack,” said IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis, adding that many details of the murder remain under a gag order by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). According to Manelis, “to the best of our knowledge he was alone.”
As of press time, the perpetrators were not found.
The victim was the grandson of Rabbi Binyamin Herling, who was killed in a 2000 terrorist attack in the West Bank.
Though enrolled in the hesder military program at the Machanayim Yeshiva in Migdal Oz, where he would have simultaneously served in the IDF and studied Torah, Sorek had not undergone any military training, was not in uniform and was unarmed at the time of his murder.
On Wednesday, the teenager was in Jerusalem. He had told his classmates that he would be back by about 8:30 p.m. He was last seen getting off a local bus at around 8 p.m. and walking in the direction of Migdal Oz.
Friends and staff became concerned when he did not arrive and failed to respond to their text messages. Close to midnight they notified the IDF that Sorek was missing.
Troops searched the area and found Sorek’s cellphone near Neve Daniel, on the west side of Route 60 near Migdal Oz, a short distance from Bethlehem. His body was discovered at 3 a.m. some 100 meters from the gate to Migdal Oz.
According to reports, the initial investigation found that Sorek struggled with his attackers. The members of the terrorist cell reportedly decided to kill him on the spot and dump his body before fleeing in the direction of Beit Fajar.
Personnel from the IDF, Israel Police and Shin Bet conducted searches throughout the Gush Etzion area outside of Jerusalem for the cell members, sealing villages, including Beit Fajar, as they carried out a manhunt.
Jawad Thawabteh, a Fatah activist in the Bethlehem area, said IDF soldiers have been operating in the village since early Thursday.
“They are surrounding the village and have confiscated security cameras from some homes and shops,” he said. “They are also operating in other villages in the area.”
Ahmed Taqatqa, a resident of Beit Fajar, said he saw troops seize security cameras
from a local gas station.
“They have set up checkpoints at the entrance to Beit Fajar and other nearby villages, and are checking cars and asking for ID cards,” he said.
Ahmed Hassan, another resident, said soldiers raided his shop and confiscated the security cameras installed there.
“They just took the cameras and left,” he said. They also raided several other businesses. There are dozens of soldiers on the outskirts of the village.”
While no terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad praised the attackers.
“We salute our people’s heroic fighters, who carried out the heroic operation that killed a soldier in the occupation’s army, who was studying at a military college known for graduating extremists who support killing our people and seizing its lands,” Hamas said in a statement, adding that “the Etzion attack is the most powerful response to the talk of an [Israeli] attempt to annex the occupied West Bank... The attack proves that Israel failed to prevent the resistance.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi visited the scene in the afternoon, along with head of the Central Command, Maj.Gen. Nadav Padan, and the commander of the Etzion Regional Brigade, Brig.-Gen. David Shapiro, where they conducted a situational assessment.
During the day, the IDF had been investigating whether Sorek had been kidnapped and stabbed at another location, since there wasn’t a large amount of blood near where his body was found. It was thought that he may have been attacked while taking an off-road shortcut to his school up the hilltop. By evening, security officials dismissed that scenario.
The IDF posthumously promoted Sorek from a private to the rank of corporal. Thousands attended his funeral at the Ofra cemetery Thursday night.
Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman said, “Gush Etzion woke up to a difficult morning in which innocent blood was spilled.” He noted that the killing took place during the month of Av, just days before Jews around the world mark the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem more than 2,600 years ago and again about 600 years later, with a day of fasting and mourning.
“History has shown that the Jewish presence in this land is not a passing phase, but an eternal fact,” Ne’eman said.
Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz said that the “unbearable ease” with which a terrorist can commit murder should “shock the entire State of Israel.” Ganz, in whose region Ofra is located, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to destroy the terrorist cell and ensure the safety and security of the residents of the West Bank.
The murder occurred not far away from the site in Gush Etzion where in 2014 teenagers Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah were kidnapped and murdered. •