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August 23, 2019 7:38 am
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Israeli Teenage Girl Killed in Bombing at West Bank Spring

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avatar by Barney Breen-Portnoy

The scene of Friday’s attack near the West Bank settlement of Dolev. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.

An Israeli teenage girl was killed and her father and older brother were wounded on Friday when a bomb was detonated at a natural spring near the West Bank settlement of Dolev.

The fatality was identified as 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, from the central Israeli city of Lod. Her father Eitan, 46, and brother Dvir, 21, were helicoptered to a hospital in Jerusalem for medical treatment. Neither is in life-threatening condition.

The late Rina Shnerb.

The IDF is conducting searches for the perpetrators of the attack.

The scene of the incident — the Bubin spring, a popular recreation spot — is located about halfway between Modi’in and Ramallah, adjacent to Dolev and the Palestinian village of Deir Ibzi.

It is believed that an improvised explosive device was planted on an access route to the site and later set off remotely when the Shnerb family was in its vicinity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “On behalf of myself and the citizens of Israel, I send deep condolences to the family of young Rina Shnerb who was murdered in a harsh terrorist attack this morning, and wishes for a quick recovery to her father, Rabbi Eitan, and her brother Dvir.”

“We will continue to strengthen settlement,” Netanyahu added. “We will deepen our roots and strike at our enemies. The security arms are in pursuit after the abhorrent terrorists. We will apprehend them. The long arm of Israel reaches all those who seek our lives and will settle accounts with them.”

Hamas praised the attack as “proof of the vitality of our people and their bravery and their failure to surrender to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation,” but did not claim responsibility for it.

Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said, “I bless this operation and I greet the hands of those who executed it. I pray for God to protect those who stood behind it. Regardless of who they are, they are Palestinians.”

Rina Shnerb was laid to rest on Friday afternoon in Lod.

“My dearest Rina, we were granted you for 17 years,” Shnerb’s sister, Tamar Levanoni, said in a eulogy. “We were given the best of you, your sensitivity, to see how you constantly strove to advance, to learn and understand. We were able to learn from you how to always seek the big answers and not be satisfied with the small ones.”

“The void is not just felt by the family, it is a pit in the heart of the nation,” she continued. “This space now needs to be filled. The work begins now. Dearest and beloved Rina, thank you for the years we had with you, I hope that we can succeed together in fulfilling the mission you left for us.”

In June 2015, a 25-year-old Israeli man, Danny Gonen, also from Lod, was shot dead at point-blank range by a Palestinian gunman next to the Bubin spring.

The past month has seen an upsurge in Palestinian violence targeting Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

On Aug. 7, an 18-year-old Israeli yeshiva student, Dvir Sorek, was murdered in a stabbing attack as he walked from a bus stop to the entrance of the Migdal Oz settlement in Gush Etzion.

Just over a week later, on Aug. 15, an Israeli police officer was injured when he was assaulted by two knife-wielding Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem’s Old City.

And last Friday, an Israeli sister and brother, 19 and 17, were wounded in a car-ramming outside the settlement of Elazar, also in Gush Etzion.

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