Nablus, Palestinian Territories - Five members of an Israeli family including a baby were murdered in their beds in a West Bank settlement in an attack blamed on Palestinians, sparking a huge manhunt on Saturday.
Media reports said a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11, and their parents were all stabbed to death in the late Friday night attack near the town of Nablus.
Army radio said two children aged four and two had been spared and a third, a girl of 10, had discovered the massacre when she arrived home and alerted neighbours.
The radio said the killer or killers had managed to get past an electric fence surrounding the settlement.
One paramedic told news website Ynet one of the children still had a pulse when they arrived, but that they had been unable to resuscitate him.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the authorities would do everything possible to protect Israelis and demanded Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas punish those responsible for the murders.
“Israel will act vigorously to defend the Israeli population and to punish the murderers,” said a statement from his office.
Abbas himself condemned the attack. “I denounce all violence against civilians, whatever the motive,” he said in a statement.
“I am against acts of vengeance. Violence begets violence,” he added, reaffirming the need to reach a just and lasting peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said: “We clearly and firmly condemn all forms of violence, and I condemn what happened last night in Itamar, just as I condemn the crimes against Palestinians.”
“There is no possible justification for the killing of parents and children in their home,” the White House said in a statement.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed shock and sadness over the murders, saying the United States “condemns this appalling attack in the strongest possible terms.”
“The murderers must be found and brought to justice. Israeli security forces have launched a thorough investigation and we look to the Palestinian authorities to assist in every way possible,” she said.
Robert Serry, special UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, “unequivocally condemns last night's shocking murder ... and calls for those responsible to be brought to justice,” his office said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian hardline Islamic Jihad, condoned the action.
“This operation is normal because it symbolises the right of resistance against the (Israeli) occupation and its crimes,” it said in a statement.
Danny Dayan, the head of Yesha, the main settlers' organisation, said the “fact that the Israeli army has to rely on the Palestinian security forces as partners to keep us safe can only explode in our faces.”
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he had ordered the Israeli mission at the United Nations to refer the attack to the Security Council.
Tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the Nablus area have been high this week. On Monday, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinians after they fought with settlers.
A week earlier, Israeli police and settlers clashed as officers moved in to remove illegal structures erected in a settlement outpost west of Nablus.
That prompted settlers to firebomb a Palestinian house, in a so-called “price tag” attack, and two children were hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
They also smashed shops and cars in the southern city of Hebron and cut down 500 olive trees planted at a former settlement outpost.
Settlers routinely stage “price tag” attacks after police and soldiers demolish illegal structures they have built, taking it out on the Palestinians for what they consider “anti-settler” activity by the government.
On Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon counselled against such action, saying it is morally wrong and “could only hurt us from a political and security point of view.” - Sapa-AFP