West Bank settler family slain

Five members of a Jewish settler family have been murdered in their home in what police suspected was an operation by Palestinian militants.

The parents and three of their children, aged 11, 3 and three months, were attacked with knives in their house in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, near the Palestinian city of Nablus. It is believed two of the dead had their throats cut.

The alarm was raised by the couple's 12-year-old daughter, who had been at an event organised by a religious youth movement on the settlement and returned to find the slaughter. Two other children, asleep at the time of the attack, were unharmed.

The area was sealed off by Israeli police and soldiers and a manhunt launched. Checkpoints were set up on the road leading to Itamar, which was declared a closed military zone.

The Israeli Army launched an operation in the nearby Palestinian village of Awata yesterday, arresting about two dozen young men.

According to an Israeli settlement security official, one or two Palestinians scaled the security fence surrounding Itamar and entered the family's home through a window. The father, he said, was a teacher in a religious school. The bodies of the dead were believed to be still at the house yesterday.

"An innocent family - a father, mother and three of their children - were murdered in the middle of the night by despicable terrorists," said Major-General Avi Mizrahi of Israeli central command. "Rest assured, we are on a hunt for those responsible, and we will find them."

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the family had been murdered "while they were sleeping in their home on the sabbath evening".

He demanded that the Palestinian Authority assist in the hunt. "Israel will not stand by idly after such a despicable murder," he said.

The attack was the first killing of settlers since four adults were shot dead near Hebron on the eve of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians in September. The talks stalled after Israel's refusal to extend a freeze on settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The West Bank has seen little militant activity in recent years as the Palestinian Authority has stepped up security measures as part of its efforts to build the basis of a future state.

Last month, Israel removed the infamous Hawara checkpoint, close to Itamar, in what was taken as an indication of improved security in the area.

But there has been continued tension between Palestinian villagers and hardline settlers, with regular skirmishes over the destruction of olive trees.

- Observer