While Israel has elected a new leader, events this week demonstrated that the old problem of violence remains.
The terror slaying of an Israeli couple Sunday night and a deadly ambush the next day of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon proved that Prime Minister- elect Benjamin Netanyahu will face tough challenges as he attempts to fulfill his campaign to maintain the security of all Israelis.
Internal Security Minister Moshe Shahal said Sunday’s attack underscored the need to implement the separation plan between Israelis and Palestinians that was a frequent subject of discussion in the outgoing government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
The plan, which called for a border of electronic fences and patrols between Israel and the territories, became bogged down amid budgetary concerns.
But Shahal said Monday that there was no other alternative for ensuring the security of Israelis, adding that he planned to persuade his successor in the incoming Likud-led government to pursue the plan.
Shahal’s comments came after Yaron Unger, 26, and his wife, Efrat Unger, 25, of Kiryat Arba, were killed when terrorists riddled their car with bullets as they were driving home from a wedding late Sunday night.
The attack occurred near Zecharya, a few miles from the West Bank, on an isolated section of the eastbound road between Ashkelon and Beit Shemesh.
Efrat Unger was in her eighth week of pregnancy.
The couple’s 9-month-old son, Yishai, who was strapped into a baby seat in the back, was not hurt.
The couple also had a 2-year-old son, Dvir, who was not with them.
Thousands of mourners attended the couple’s funeral Monday afternoon, including Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yisrael Meir Lau, senior army officers and Knesset members.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
In southern Lebanon the next morning, five Israeli army soldiers were killed and eight wounded, three of them seriously, in a Hezbollah ambush in the central sector of the southern Lebanon security zone.
Peres said Israel regarded the incident as “a serious attack” and that it would respond to it in “a manner, time and place that it deems appropriate.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns called on Hezbollah to “cease and desist its attacks on Israeli soldiers.”
The attacks were “the last thing that we need now” in the uncertain political climate generated by Netanyahu’s election victory, Burns added.
Soon after the ambush, Israeli forces retaliated with tank and artillery fire near the Lebanese town of Nabatiya.
The death toll from the ambush was the highest since the United States brokered a cease-fire in late April to the cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Israeli soldiers killed in the ambush were identified as: Lt. Yishai Shechter, 21, Kedumim; Lt. Lior Ramon, 21, Ramat Gan; Staff Sgt. Idan Gavriel, 20, Herzliya; Sgt. Yaniv Roimi, 21, Moshav Dvora; and Staff Sgt. Eshel Amir Ben Moshe, 21, Moshav Yuvalim.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
