Shooting attack at family car kills father, wounds mother and two children

A father has been killed, a mother critically wounded, and two children—a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl—injured in a shooting attack, which took place on Friday afternoon on route 60 in the southern West Bank between Beit Hagai and Otniel. The murdered man was Rabbi Michael (Miki) Mark, his wounded wife is Chava, and the boy and girl present in the car are Pedayah and Tehila, respectively. The couple have ten children in total.

According to reports, the family was driving in their car when the tailing terrorist (or terrorists) began to overtake them and opened fire. At least 19 shots were fired, and the attacked family’s car flipped as the driver was shot. All members of the family were wounded from the car’s flipping, and the boy was the only person in the car who does not appear to have been struck with a bullet.

The terrorists then fled the scene in their vehicle, prompting security forces to launch a widescale search that continues. The Judea and Samaria District Police have announced that they have closed a section of Route 60 for forensic analysis.

Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics were called to the scene and provided emergency treatment. They initially attempted to resuscitate the quadragenarian father, but they were unsuccessful and were forced to declare him dead.

The mother, also in her 40s, was evacuated in serious condition to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center with serious wounds to her upper body. She was taken in for surgery.

According to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, a 13-year-old girl in moderate to serious condition was also evacuated with gunshot wounds to her upper body. A 15-year-old boy was also lightly wounded and is being treated there.

Prof. Avraham Rivkind, the head of Hadassah’s Shock Trauma Unit, stated that doctors examined the photograhs of the flipped car, which helped them decide what steps to take in providing medical care for the three wounded Israelis.

The family are residents of the West Bank. Initial reports of a one-year-old being present in the family’s car appear to be incorrect.

Har Hevron Regional Council head Yochay Damri released a message to the council’s citizens: “Our blood boils; again, we have experienced a shocking murder, and again on the Sabbath eve against a Har Hevron family.”

The attack is the fourth to have taken place in two days and comes just one day after Mohammed Taraireh’s deadly attack on Thursday morning, in which he broke into a house in Kiryat Arba and stabbed 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel to death, and an hour after an attempted stabbing in Hebron, committed by a relative of Taraireh.

The prime minister announced that the Security Cabinet will convene on Saturday night at 10pm.

Netanyahu’s office further announced that Palestinian Authority payments to terrorists and their families be deducted from tax revenue transfers to the PA.

The Palestinian Authority transfers funds to terrorists by various laundering methods; the more severe the acts of terrorism, the greater the amount of funds. Netanyahu has ordered that the entire amount of support for terrorists and their families be deducted from the tax revenues that Israel transfers monthly to the Palestinian Authority.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office explained, “Israel believes that the encouragement of terrorism by the Palestinian leadership – in the form of both incitement and payments to terrorists and their families – constitutes incentive for murder.”

President Reuven Rivlin released his condolences in a statment: “I want to give strength to the Mark family, after the murder of their dear father Michael (Miki), and I join in the prayers being said now across Israel for the full recovery of the family’s mother and children… At this difficult time, I also want to offer my support to the IDF and the security services, who will apprehend these vicious murderers.”

Yoav Zitun, Rotem Elizera, and Elisha Ben Kimon contributed to this report.