FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)The Israeli family murdered in their Rishon LeZion home were likely stabbed to death by a professional killer, according to an autopsy.
Israelis reacted with horror over the weekend to the murder of six members of the Oshrenko family. Among the three generations of victims found stabbed to death Saturday in their burning home were a 3-year-old girl and 4-month-old boy.
The autopsy also showed that the father of the children wrestled with the killer, Ha’aretz reported. The family was buried Sunday afternoon.
The members of the Oshrenko family killed were Revital, 3, and Netanel, 4 months; their parents, Tatiana, 28, and Dimitry, 32; and grandparents Edward and Ludmilla, both 56. Tatiana and Dimitry, Russian émigrés, operated clubs and a restaurant for Russian Israelis.
“Even by the standards of the Russian or Caucasian underworld, what took place in the apartment of this family was exceptional,” a police officer told Ha’aretz.
Police on Sunday raided the restaurant in Rishon LeZion, questioning employees as well as the relatives and friends of the family. The investigation is under a media gag order.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “deep pain and shock” over the murders of the family, calling the violence “horrifying” and “terrible” at the beginning of Sunday’s regular Cabinet meeting. He offered his condolences to the family, as well as to Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, a friend of the Oshrenkos.
The family had celebrated Revital’s birthday last Friday night. The next morning, firefighters were called to the apartment to put out a fire and discovered the bodies upon breaking down the door to the apartment. They said the victims had died from being stabbed and not due to the fire.
Israelis Warned Against Travel to India
Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned its citizens against traveling to India due to a concrete threat of a terror attack.
The alert warns that the terror group identified as carrying out the terror attack in Mumbai last November is planning new attacks in India that will target tourists and Chabad houses and synagogues. Six Jews, including Chabad emissaries Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, were killed in the attack on the Chabad house there.
The warning follows a similar alert issued before Rosh Hashanah saying that Jews and Israelis could be targeted at Chabad houses and synagogues throughout the country.
Goldstone: Israel Could Stop Report with Open Inquiry
Israel could stop the Goldstone report process if it openly investigated its army’s conduct in the Gaza War, Richard Goldstone said.
“If the Israeli government set up an appropriate investigation, it would really be the end of the matter,” said Goldstone, the former South African judge who authored the report alleging war crimes by both sides in last winter’s war between Israel and Hamas. “The heart of the report would become pretty irrelevant if there was an open, bona fide investigation.”
Goldstone was addressing a Sunday evening conference call of about 150 rabbis affiliated with Ta’anit Tzedek, the Jewish Fast for Gaza; Rabbis for Human Rights-North America; and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom.
Goldstone rejected Israeli criticism that the controversy engendered by the report is inhibiting the peace process.
“This is a shallow, false allegation,” he said. “What peace process are they talking about? There isn’t one.”
Goldstone said he had moderated his criticism last week of a draft resolution of the Human Rights Council endorsing the report. A draft resolution he had seen earlier in the week endorsed the report but criticized only Israel and omitted mention of Hamas.
Following his complaint, Goldstone said, the resolution’s drafters added language addressing Hamas’ role, and that’s what passed last Friday.
“It resulted in an additional paragraph being inserted into the passage dealing with the report condemning the targeting of any civilians and for the accounting of all parties,” he said, adding his belief that it clearly referenced Hamas.
Goldstone said he was still unhappy that the council added references to Israeli actions unconnected to the report, including recent actions in Jerusalem.
Goldstone, who has worked in the past with Israeli institutions and pro-Israel groups, said his views of the country have not changed.
“My love for Israel remains unaffected,” he said.
Goldstone also said that personal attacks from some Israelis and Jews keep him “awake at night.”
“I expected criticism,” he said, “but I didn’t expect the venom and what I consider to be unfair personal attacks.”