ISRAEL MINISTER TO TURN SPRING NEAR WEST BANK ATTACK INTO TOURIST SITE
Ramallah, 5 Ramadhan 1436/21 June 2015 (MINA) – The Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel on Saturday pledged to turn a West Bank spring an Israeli hiked to before he was fatally shot into a tourist site.
Ariel made the comments at the funeral of 25-year-old Danny Gonen, who was shot dead in his car by a Palestinian gunman on Friday after hiking with his friend near the village of Ras Karkar in the occupied West Bank.
“The murderers who didn’t want to see even a few hikers there will now see how thousands of other Jews flock to it,” said Ariel. Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The funeral took place in Gonen’s central Israeli hometown Lod.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it was searching Ramallah for the attacker but had so far made no arrests.
While a number Palestinian factions have praised the deadly shooting, there have been conflicting reports over its responsibility.
On Saturday the Hamas-affiliated news site, the Palestinian Information Center, reported that Hamas’ military wing al-Qassam Brigades had claimed responsibility, saying the shooting had been carried out by the affiliated “Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha Brigade.”
The name is for Marwan Qawasmeh and Amir Abu Eisha, who were killed by Israeli forces on Sept. 23 last year on suspicion that they were behind the killing of three Israeli teenagers near Hebron in June the same year.
Separately on Saturday, a Palestinian woman was lightly injured after stones were thrown at her car near the site of the shooting.
According to Palestinian medics, the woman was taken to hospital but her condition was “not very bad.”
Palestinians said Saturday’s incident could have been an act of revenge by settlers for Gonen’s death, although the stones could also have been thrown by Palestinians mistaking the woman’s vehicle for an Israeli one. (T/P010/R04)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
