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Israeli security captures Palestinian terrorists behind Homesh deadly attack

Two terrorists and four suspected accomplices were arrested; Dimentman’s brother calls for rebuilding Homesh as an additional proper response to the murder.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Two Palestinian terrorists who shot and killed Yehuda Dimentman last week on the road near the village of Homesh on Thursday night were captured overnight by security forces, along with four Palestinians suspected of assisting them.

Thanks to intensive intelligence work, the six suspects were arrested in the village of Silat al-Harithiya outside of Jenin in a pinpoint raid by multiple security forces. Their weapons were also captured.

The two terrorists directly involved in Dimentman’s death are reportedly members of the Islamic Jihad.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who sat in the operational command center for the duration of the operation, praised Sunday the IDF’s fast work in locating the murderers and their accomplices.

“I commend the ISA, the IDF and the Israel National Counter-Terrorism Unit, on quickly closing the circle,” he said. “Every terrorist must know that he’s on borrowed time. I would like to convey to the family of Yehudah Dimentman: The pain is immense but terrorism will not win and will not move us from here.”

Dimentman’s brother, Shlomi, congratulated the forces but took issue with Bennett’s wording.

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“We thank the security forces who managed to stop the killing spree of which Yehuda was just the first victim in line,” he said. “It doesn’t close the circle and we haven’t stopped sitting shiva [week of mourning] because of it.

“If we want to close the circle, we must return to Homesh, from which the terrorists wanted to expel us. The terrorists want us to think that because of the shahids (Arab martyrs) they succeeded in ousting us from here. We have to answer fire with fire and show them that we will build specifically in these places. The killing just causes us to build more and more.”

Homesh was one of four small northern Samarian settlements that the Israeli government destroyed in 2005 along with the more famous expulsion of 8,000 residents from Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. A small yeshiva was established there illegally by young men who believed the expulsion was a massive error that simply encouraged terrorism.

Dimentman, the 25-year-old father of an infant son who lived in the nearby village of Shavei Shomron, was one of the students. He was traveling back home around 7 pm with three classmates when terrorists ambushed the car, hitting it with some 15 bullets. Dimentman, who was sitting in the back, was critically injured and two other passengers were lightly wounded. The driver, who was not hurt, sped on to Shavei Shomron while his passengers called security forces and summoned medical aid. Dimentman died soon after reaching the hospital.

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At the Friday funeral, which started in Homesh before the mourners took the body to be buried in Jerusalem, Shlomi had noted that while running for election on a right-wing platform, Bennett had promised to rebuild the settlement, and called on him to “repent” and fulfill his pledge.

“The ruins here are a black stain on the State of Israel,” he said. “We will be here and we will risk our lives. The State of Israel should make sure that we live here in peace and tranquility. This is our country and we will not give it to anyone else.”

The Nahala Movement tried setting up a nascent settlement quickly on Friday on state land outside of Kiryat Arba near Hebron in Dimentman’s name, called Nofei Yehuda. Security forces evacuated it mere hours later.