20 years later: Terrorist who murdered pregnant woman, 4 kids killed in Gaza airstrike

“This sends a clear message to the murderers that the people of Israel will always reach those who harm us,” said David Hatuel, the bereaved husband and father.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A terrorist who murdered a pregnant woman and her four children in a shooting attack nearly 20 years ago was killed in an overnight airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the victims’ husband and father said Tuesday.

Tali Hatuel, who was eight months pregnant, was driving near her home near Gush Katif, in pre-disengagement Gaza, in May 2004. Her four daughters, ages two to eleven, were also in the vehicle.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists targeted their car, spraying the vehicle with hundreds of rounds fired from machine guns. Hatuel, her unborn son,and all of her children were killed.

Senior Islamic Jihad operative Jahed Anam, one of the terrorists who participated in the attack, evaded capture by Israeli authorities. After Israel withdrew from the coastal enclave in 2005, Anam rose to a position of prominence within the terror group. He served as the secretary of Islamic Jihad’s military wing and helped coordinate the transfer of funds between the group and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

David Hatuel, the widow and father of the victims, praised the Tuesday morning airstrike that killed Anam along with other prominent Islamic Jihad terrorists.

“This sends a clear message to the murderers that the people of Israel will always reach those who harm us,” he said. “As long as they hurt us, they will not have a safe place on Earth.”

He added that “in my name and in the name of the entire family, I thank God and the security forces for the elimination of those who were responsible for planning the murderous attack on my wife Tali and our four daughters – Hila, Hadar, Roni and Meirav- exactly 19 years ago.”

Since his family’s murder, Hatuel has remarried and has four children.