A Jerusalem taxi driver was murdered in a stabbing attack north of Jerusalem on Monday.
The murder, which police officials believe may have been the work of terrorists, took place on the same day that Israeli and Palestinian officials reported some progress in their negotiations.
Police began a search for the suspect after Rafi Cohen, 35, was found in his taxi near the Arab village of el-Zaimon on the highway between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
Cohen, who had suffered stab wounds to the head, was evacuated in critical condition to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital where he later died.
Israeli security officials have been on alert in the wake of warnings that Palestinians may carry out terror attacks to mark the anniversary of last year’s Hebron massacre, which falls this week in the Muslim calendar. During that attack, West Bank settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire at Muslim worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 people.
A resident of Jerusalem, Cohen was married and the father of two.
The attack came a day after a regional summit was held in Washington in an attempt to get the peace process back on track.
In Jerusalem, Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin said he did not believe the murder would have a negative impact on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Some progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative was made Monday, when officials from the two sides held their first-ever meeting in the West Bank Jericho enclave to discuss Palestinian elections.
In talks led by Yoel Singer, the Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser, and by Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority official in charge of municipal matters, the two sides agreed to hold two separate elections in the territories — one for the president of the autonomy council and one for the council itself. Singer said that under the terms of the agreement, each Palestinian voter will receive two ballots on election day — one for the council president and the other for the council’s members.
The two sides failed to reach agreement on whether supporters of the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement will participate in the elections.
On Sunday, Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, told the German newsmagazine Focus that Hamas will not take part in the elections because if Hamas wins, it will have to implement the Israel-PLO peace accord, which the group militantly opposes.
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