Eliyahu Asheri
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Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri (February 2, 1988 – June 25, 2006) was an Israeli student from the village of Itamar, in the Samaria region of the West Bank who was kidnapped, and later murdered, by the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) on June 25, 2006, hours after the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal, that led to Operation Summer Rains. [1]
Eliyahu was kidnapped on his way from Beitar Illit to Neveh Tzuf, northwest of Ramallah.
On June 28, the group threatened to execute him if Israel did not suspend its Operation Summer Rains into the Gaza Strip, which is in response to the kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) corporal Gilad Shalit. Asheri was last seen in the French Hill intersection of Jerusalem. He was a student at the Elisha Yeshiva Academy, a so-called "pre-military" yeshiva in Neveh Tzuf.
On June 27, Abu Abir, the spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees, said "[Asheri] is a soldier in a pre-military academy", and that Asheri would be "butchered in front of TV cameras" if Israel did not meet its demands.
Early on June 29, the IDF confirmed it recovered the body of Asheri which had been buried in an open field near Ramallah, shot to death, and possibly the same day he was abducted. The IDF had been led to the site by the murderer, who had been arrested in an IDF raid earlier the same morning. He was buried the same day in the afternoon on the Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem.
The Popular Resistance Committees initially claimed responsibility for the attack, and an initial Shin Bet investigation revealed that the abduction was carried out by a Tanzim cell with links to the PLC, but later it became known that the kidnapping was planned and carried out by Fatah members.
In the early hours of July 4, 2006, dozens of Israeli soldiers and about 30 military jeeps moved into Ramallah in order to capture three militants involved in the kidnapping and murder of Asheri. The militants took refuge in a local Palestinian Police station, which IDF forces completely surrounded. Following a three-hour standoff, the militants surrendered. The suspects were identified as Hamza Taktuk, Hiam Qamangi and Bassam Qatiyeh, all al-Aqsa Brigades activists and Palestinian Preventive Security force members (note: the ringleader and actual killer of Asheri was captured a week prior) [2]
