A previously unknown group called "the Intifada Martyrs" claimed responsibility Sunday for the attack that killed the son and daughter-in-law of late Israeli extremist Meir Kahane, reported AFP.
Binyamin Zeev Kahane and his wife were shot dead in a hail of automatic gun fire Sunday near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, witnesses said.
The organization said its commandos "ambushed Israeli occupation forces near the Ofra settlement near Nablus and opened fire on a vehicle carrying settlers."
"The vehicle was hit and all the passengers were either killed or wounded," the statement, quoted by the agency, said.
Kahane was killed outright. His wife died later of her injuries, said the agency.
Their three children, who were also in the car, were injured.
The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the injured children were hospitalized in Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Hospital.
An official at the hospital said that one of the daughters, aged about five, is in serious condition in the hospital's intensive-care unit, added the paper.
The family live in the Kfar Tapouakh settlement, near Nablus. They were on their way to Jerusalem when their vehicle came under fire near Ofra, north of Ramallah, close to a Palestinian village, Israeli Radio reported.
Their vehicle fell into a ditch after being hit, said AFP. Israeli troops set up road-blocks in the area and opened an investigation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on radio: "I am sure that the Israeli forces will do what is necessary. They are acting against the terrorists. We maintain the spirit of resistance in our just fight and nobody is going to make us bend."
In the meantime, The Jerusalem Post said that the Council of Jewish Communities in the West Bank and Gaza held Barak and Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami personally responsible for the killing of Kahane and his wife.
The council said in a statement that "our lives have been abandoned, we are paying the price for Barak's election campaign." -- (Several Sources)
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