IDF Colonel Hacked to Death in Jordan Valley

Palestinians wielding axes and iron bars killed Shariyah Ofer outside his home in the West Bank, the latest in a series of attacks on Israelis in the area.

In a tragic coincidence, the IDF reserve colonel was killed forty years to the day of his brother’s death, Army Radio reported. Combat pilot Yitzhak Ofer was killed on October 11, 1973 when his aircraft was shot down over the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was “brutally attacked with iron bars and axes” at about 2 a.m. after he went outside to investigate suspicious noises. “We strongly believe this was a terror attack,” Rosenfeld said.

His partner witnessed the assault from a window and she escaped from a back door of the house, Rosenfeld said.

The Israeli news website Ynet said the woman was lightly injured when she tripped on barbed wire while running away and later underwent surgery. According to the reports, the slain man was a reservist, a colonel in his fifties.

The woman, identified as Monique Mor by Channel 10 TV, later spoke to the station from a hospital bed.

“Everybody knew him, he was a military man for many years,” she said. Seraiah Ofer had served as commander of the Gaza district and in several elite combat units, she said.

Israeli president Shimon Peres issued a statement condemning the killing of a senior officer “who served his country and people.” “No-one will rest until the murderers are brought to justice,” he said.

The attack took place at an Israeli resort called B’rosh HaBik’a in the Jordan Valley- which technically would make it a Jewish settlement in the West Bank – in a mostly desolate area. The place was empty at the time except for the couple.

The military stopped short of calling the assault a “terror attack,” saying that an investigation was still underway. It said troops set up roadblocks, searched the area and five suspects were later arrested.

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was holding the suspects for questioning, the IDF confirmed.

It was the latest violent attack in the West Bank in the past few weeks.

Last week, a 9-year-old girl was wounded in a suspected Palestinian attack while playing outside her home in a West Bank settlement. An Israeli soldier was shot and killed last month by a sniper in the West Bank city of Hebron. And in a separate incident an Israeli soldier was lured to the West Bank and killed by a Palestinian who wanted to trade the body for his brother who is serving time in an Israeli jail for shooting and bomb attacks.