Kindly couple picked up Kedumim suicide bomber

[Behind the Aegis]

The security forces began over the weekend to investigate the terrorist attack at the entrance to Kedumim on Thursday night, in which four Israelis were killed: Rafi and Ilana Halevy, 60, of Kedumim, and two hitchhikers they had picked up on their drive home - Shaked Lasker, 16, of Kedumim and Re'ut Feldman, 20, of Herzliya, who was doing national service. Preliminary findings indicate that the Halevys picked up the suicide bomber, disguised as an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student, along with the others, at the hitchhiking stop at the nearby settlement of Karnei Shomron around 9:45 P.M. The terrorist, identified as Ahmed Masharka, was held in a Palestinian security forces prison until about a month ago.

A Kedumim resident who had passed by the hitchhiking post a minute or two before the Halevys said later that he had meant to stop for passengers, but the behavior of the "yeshiva student" aroused his suspicion. He alerted the Kedumim security dispatch that a suspicious man was hanging about the hitchhiking post, but the security people did not manage to get there in time.

Another Kedumim resident, who was driving behind the Halevys, said Friday that he noticed Rafi Halevy was driving erratically. He thinks that Halevy realized in the course of the drive (which lasted just a few minutes) that a bomber was on board and tried to disrupt the attack, or at least keep away from the gas station adjacent to Kedumim.

Masharka, 24, was a Fatah operative from the village of Al-Bourj near Hebron. He was arrested by the Palestinian Authority as a suspected would-be suicide bomber, but was released in early March. He apparently moved to one of the villages around Nablus and made contact with a local Fatah network.

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[bemildred]

1. People are not born with that kind of hate, they have to be taught. nt