A 63-year-old French woman who came to Bethlehem on a religious pilgrimage was stabbed to death at a restaurant there Tuesday.
A bloodstained kitchen knife with a 16-inch blade was found near the scene of the crime, leading police to believe the lone assailant escaped through the kitchen of the Andalus Restaurant on Manger Square.
The Israeli authorities immediately clamped a curfew on the city and declared it a closed military area, off limits to the news media. Police detained about 30 local residents for questioning.
The victim was set upon as she emerged from the restroom. No motive was suggested for the crime.
The French Consulate gave the victim’s age but did not immediately release her name.
Mayor Elias Freij of Bethlehem called the killing “barbaric.”
He stressed that the victim came to Bethlehem with French nuns “purposely to pray” in the Church of the Nativity, the site of Jesus’ birth according to Christian tradition.
“The right of worship in Bethlehem must be guaranteed by Arabs, and I and want all Arabs to condemn this act,” the mayor added.
Israeli security sources assume the perpetrator is a Moslem fundamentalist.
Bethlehem, a major attraction for foreign tourists and religious pilgrims, has hardly recovered from the sharp drop in tourism last winter, especially during the Christmas season, because of the Persian Gulf War.
Another stabbing was reported Tuesday at Moshav Zeitan, near Lod, where a young member was knifed in the neck and lightly wounded.
The assailant, a young Arab from Gaza, was quickly caught by police near the perimeter fence of Ben-Gurion Airport. The attacker said he had acted at the behest of a fundamentalist group in Gaza, which instructed him to kill Jews.
Gaza is a hotbed of activity by Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.
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