Seven-year-old Noam Leibovitch was killed, her three-year-old sister was seriously wounded, and two other family members [Noam's eleven-year-old brother and her grandfather] were injured when terrorists opened fire on their car late Tuesday night on the Trans-Israel highway, not far from the Palestinian town of Kalkilya. The army imposed a curfew on Kalkilya, but the gunmen managed to escape. It was the first terror attack to occur on the new toll highway.
The attack occurred after 11 p.m. Tuesday night as the Leibovitch family was returning from a bar mitzvah celebration in Jerusalem to their home in Yamin Orde, near Haifa. It was the first time that the family had traveled on the north-south Trans-Israel No. 6 highway, Israel's first toll road. "We thought Highway 6 was safe," Noam's mother screamed as her daughter was brought into Petach Tikva's Beilinson Hospital, where she died of her injuries.
The family was returning from a bar mitzvah in Jerusalem to their home near Haifa. But, curiously, Voice of Palestine radio reports this morning referred to this incident as the "death by shooting of the female Israeli settler."
One part of this story that isn't getting enough attention is this:
According to an initial investigation of the attack, security officials said two terrorists used a pneumatic device to cut through bars in a sewer tunnel under the eight-meter-high security wall built around the outskirts of Kalkilya. The wall was built 18 months ago as part of security arrangements for Highway 6.
The eight-meter-high "security wall" didn't stop two "freedom fighters" from murdering a little girl and devastating her family. And it's not going to stop dozens more from blowing themselves up on buses or in supermarkets or cafés or shopping malls. For those who are sufficiently determined, there's always going to be a way under or over or around a wall or a fence.
Meanwhile, "cease fire" talks continue between the PA and Hamas. No problem. Noam's death was proudly claimed by Arafat's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC).
