Israeli media sources reported that an Israeli settler was found guilty
of killing four Palestinians in an attempt to foil that Israeli pullout
from the Gaza Strip, and four settlements in the West Bank last year,
during the implementation of the disengagement plan. The settler was
tried at the Jerusalem District Court on Monday.
The settlers was identified as Asher Weisgan, 38, of Shvut Rachel settlement in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli news paper Jerusalem Post said on its online edition that Weisgan had called for the assassination of the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
A psychiatrist who examined Weisgan at court order, found him mentally fit to stand for trial, the Jerusalem post added.
The attack took place August 2005 when Weisgan grabbed a gun from a security guard after the later asked him for a drink of water, and opened fire at Palestinian workers from a close range. Three were killed instantly while the fourth died of his wounds at Hadassah Ein Karem university hospital in Jerusalem.
The attack took place near the Israeli settlement of Shilo, in the northern part of the West Bank.
The court indictment said that the assailant shot each of the victims, whom he knew well, five or six times. He also refilled his cartridge before his shot the last victim, the indictment reads.
Weisgan also went after a fifth victim who was still at work and repeatedly shot him from a close range in order to verify that he was dead. After the attack, the settler turned himself into the settlement guard.
As he lay injured, one of the wounded Arab victims, who was bleeding from a bullet that skimmed his face, shouted at the attacker "Asher what are you doing?" the charge sheet relates, only to be met by another hail of bullets, which narrowly missed him.
The court will set a date for sentencing Weisgan.
Four killed in Shilo terrorist attack, four injured
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 18:24
An Israeli medical source reported that a fourth Palestinian resident died of wounds sustained after an extremist settler opened fire at Palestinian workers in the industrial area of the northern west Bank settlement of Shilo.
The resident died of his wounds at Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Karem – Jerusalem, while a fifth resident is still in a critical condition.
The terrorist Asher Weisgan, a 38-year-old driver from Shvut Rahel settlement, in the West Bank used to transport the workers to and from the industrial zone on daily basis.
On Wednesday afternoon, he was driving the workers home, and stopped on the way out to ask a security guard for a cup of water, and then he grabbed the gun of the security guard and fired at the workers.
Senior army officials said that they expect prominent rabbis in the West Bank to issue a clear statement condemning the attack.
Settler terror hits again; three Palestinians killed, four injured
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies, Wednesday, 17 August 2005
An Israeli extremist killed three Palestinians and seriously wounded four others on Wednesday afternoon, when he opened fire at a group of Palestinian workers in the industrial zone of the West Bank settlement of Shiloh east of Jerusalem, Israeli military sources reported.
According to initial reports, the settler apparently snatched the weapon of a security guard in the settlement and shot the workers; the settler was apprehended by the Israeli security.
“The settler abducted the weapon from a guard and killed two Palestinians at a car”, a security guard told the Israeli radio, “then he went back to the guard, drank water, and fired again at a group of workers, killing another one, and seriously injuring two others”.
The Israeli Radio reported that the assailant, identified as 40-year-old Asher Weisgan, from the settlement of Shvut Rahel, north of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Zaki Heller, service official at the Israeli Magen David Adom ambulance, said that ambulances and intensive care units were dispatched at the shooting site in addition to a military helicopter, and transferred the injured residents to Hadassah Ein-Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
This is the second attack against Palestinians by Israeli gunmen in less than two weeks.
On August 4, 2005, a settler-soldier opened fire on board a bus heading to Arab town of Shfa-Amr in Israel, killing four Arab residents and injuring at least 15 others.
The victims of the terrorist attack were identified as two sisters, Hazar 23, and Deena Torkey, 21, Nader Hayek, 55, and Michael Bahhouth, 56 years old.
The assailant, Natan-Zada was a military deserter residing in Tapoah settlement, in the West Bank; the settlement is slated for evacuation under the disengagement plan. Some sources said the soldier who carried out the bus attack was dispatched from one of the settlements near Jenin in the West Bank slated for evacuation under the disengagement plan, which begun on August 15.
