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December 22, 2004
Terror suspected in moshav murder
Evidence points to Palestinian terror infiltration
ARIEH O’SULLIVAN
A knife-wielding assailant, apparently an infiltrator from the West Bank, brutally stabbed to death Ariella Fahima, a 39-year-old mother of four, on Tuesday at the door to her home in Moshav Nehusha south of Beit Shemesh.
Her 12-year-old daughter discovered her bloodied body when she came home from school.
Police immediately launch-ed a widespread manhunt but failed to apprehend any suspects. Searches detected a hole in the security fence and tracks leading to one of the Palestinian villages across the Green Line a few kilometers away.
It would be the first fatal terrorist attack in the region for over a dozen years but came amid repeated warnings that terrorists would slip into the region from Judea since the security fence has not yet been constructed there.
According to police, Fahima had apparently returned to Nehusha after shopping at the market in Beit Shemesh, some 15 kilometers away. Evidence suggests she put down her groceries and then detected one or more assailants. She tried to flee, but was caught at her door where her throat was slit and she was repeatedly stabbed.
Police estimate the attack took place around noon. Her daughter found her at 1:30, her mobile phone nearby.
Israel Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Tuesday evening that the evidence was leaning increasingly toward a nationalist terror attack. They found no immediate personal or criminal motives. Nevertheless, the investigation was being conducted by the criminal detectives as well as the Minorities Unit, he said.
Fahima is survived by her husband and four young children. He husband, Yoel, is a veteran Border Police officer and responsible for volunteers who protect local moshavim and villages.
The religious moshav is located on an isolated hilltop less than 2,000 meters from the Green Line. It has suffered for decades from thefts from across the border, but the rate in the entire area has skyrocketed of late. Border Police attribute this to Palestinians’ desire to "stock up the warehouses" before the fence is completed.
Work on the security fence is in progress about 15 kilometers south, near Moshav Shekef.
The victim’s husband, who was in Netanya, suspected something was wrong when he failed to reach his wife on the telephone.
Fahima is to be buried in Ashkelon on Wednesday.
As the murder was taking place, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was announcing that work on the security fence in this region of the Judean foothills would begin soon and would be completed within six months.
"I believe that, in light of the speedy work we have done planning the revised route, we’ll be able to complete most of the fence, including the southern stretch, by the middle of 2005," Mofaz said, but it could take longer. The pace wasn’t entirely up the defense establishment, he said.
"We warned the regional council heads over two years ago that as the fence is completed in other areas, there will be incidents in that area. If it had been completed, as it could have been, this woman would be alive today," said Marc Luria, a spokesman for the Security Fence for Israel lobby group.
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.
In Memoriam
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