Itamar Marks Two-Year Anniversary of Fogel Family Massacre
by Zach Pontz
Sunday marked the two-year Hebrew anniversary of the massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar, in the West Bank. A service was held near the Fogel home in Itamar which included Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, members of the Knesset, rabbis, senior military officials, family, neighbors and friends. Neeman read a letter from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which said he is regularly updated about the three surviving Fogel children.
In March 2011, two teenage cousins from a nearby Arab village scaled the security fence surrounding the town of Itamar located in the West Bank. They crawled through the window of the Fogel home and, once inside, murdered parents Udi and Ruth, 11-year-old Yoav, 4-year-old Elad, and 3-month-old Hadas.
Three children survived: 14-year-old Tamar, 10-year-old Roi and four-year-old Yishai and have been taken in by Rabbi Yehuda and Tali Ben-Yishai, the parents of Ruth Fogel. In an interview published Friday in Israel Hayom, Rabbi Ben-Yishai said of his daughter, son-in-law and three slain grandchildren, “They’re always with us.”
“What happened was so inhuman that we have gained superhuman strength,” grandmother Tali said. “We know these children will be great people. They will be all right. They will not be damaged. They’re not in trauma anymore. Some children are afraid of what happens around them, but they’re not like that. They’re not the sort who don’t want to go to school or don’t want to get out of bed and spend the day crying.”