Two 14-year-old Israeli boys became the latest victims of Mideast violence when they were found brutally murdered early yesterday morning. The two were stoned to death and their bound bodies were dumped in a cave not far from the West Bank settlement where they lived.
Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon blamed the Palestinians for the deaths, and Israeli police said the two boys, Yaakov Mandel and Yosef IshRan, had almost certainly been slain for nationalistic reasons. Mr Sharon demanded that the Palestinian Authority "immediately cease its terror activities and venomous incitement for murder against Israelis and Jews, which is being conducted in the official Palestinian media".
Israeli Defence Minister Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer vowed that Israel would "hunt the boys' killers one by one". Jewish settler leaders called on the government to bring down the Palestinian Authority of President Yasser Arafat. Thousands of settlers, the vast majority of whom voted for Mr Sharon earlier this year but who have begun protesting what they say is his ineffectual response to Palestinian violence, joined the funeral processions for the two boys yesterday afternoon.
"Not even animals do to their victims what the murderers did to these boys," said settler leader Mr Shaul Goldstein.
Friends of the two boys said they had decided to skip school and go hiking near their home settlement of Tekoa, south of Jerusalem. When they failed to return home, their parents notified security authorities.
The police, who arrested 15 Palestinians in the vicinity of the murder, said the two boys were probably killed in a chance encounter. Mandel had recently moved to Israel from the US with his parents.
Asked about the killing, Mr Arafat evaded the question, saying: "Today, a small baby in Rafah was exposed to the same tragedy." Mr Arafat was referring to a three-month-old Palestinian baby who was in moderate condition after being hit in the head by shrapnel yesterday after Israeli soldiers fired at the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Mr Saeb Erekat, however, expressed sorrow over the killings: "The Palestinian Authority regrets the loss of life of these two boys and all children, be it Israeli or Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim or Christian," he said.
The boys' deaths came only a day after the funeral of Iman Hijo, a four-month-old Palestinian girl who was killed on Monday when Israeli tanks shelled the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza.
Pope John Paul, who was in Malta yesterday after having just completed a trip to Syria, condemned yesterday's killings.
"Again today we hear sad news from the Holy Land, of terrible violence even against young people," he said at a Mass attended by tens of thousands in Floriana, Malta.
In northern Gaza, Israeli bulldozers and tanks made yet another foray into Palestinian-controlled territory, destroying a police post and uprooting trees which military officials said Palestinian gunmen were using as cover.
Elsewhere, a US official yesterday slammed Mr Sharon's plan to increase funding to Jewish settlements.
"This activity risks further inflaming the already volatile situation in the region and is provocative," said State Department spokesman, Mr Philip Reeker.