PLO Claims Responsibility for the Murder of an Israeli

The Palestine Liberation Organization has claimed responsibility for the murder of Moshe Yoskovitz early yesterday near the Church of Gethsemane in the Old City. The PLO claimed that he was murdered because he was a member of the Gush Emunim. Yoskovitz, 47, of Bnei Brak was buried today in the Mount of Olives cemetery, not for from where he was fatally shot at close range.

Yoskovitz, a Gerre Hasid, arrived in Jerusalem Friday with his daughter and son-in-law to say selihot (penitential prayers) at the Gerre Synagogue in the Old City. On Saturday night he was in the synagogue for prayer services while his daughter and son-in-law drove to the Mount of Olives, not far from the synagogue and the church, to visit the grave of the Gerre Rebbe.

They returned to the car but the engine stalled and they left it there and proceeded to walk back to the synagogue. Shortly after midnight all three returned to the car in an effort to get it started. When it failed to do so, Yoskovitz’s son-in-law and daughter left to summon a tow truck while Yoskovitz stayed with the car.

Suddenly, shortly before 1 a.m. yesterday, residents who live nearby heard two shots from the street followed by the screams of a man: “No, no.” They immediately summoned the police, who found Yoskovitz on the sidewalk drenched in blood. He was rushed to Hadassah Hospital where he later died. The security forces immediately placed road blocks in the area and conducted a wide manhunt.

The area, just outside the southern Lions Gate to the Old City, is known as dangerous. A few yards from the scene of yesterday’s crime, a reserve soldier, Avraham Deutsch, was murdered last year, also by terrorists who saw him standing alone near the Rockefeller Museum.