The murder of Eliyahu Asheri was a terror attack which carried out on June 25, 2006, in which Palestinian
Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) militants kidnapped, and later murdered the 18-year-old Israeli high school student Eliyahu Asheri.[1]
Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri[2] (
Hebrew: אליהו פנחסי אשר; February 2, 1988 – June 25, 2006) was an Israeli student from the
settlement of
Itamar, in the northern
West Bank. He was a student at the religious
pre-army Mechina (preparatory program) "Elisha" in Neveh Tzuf.[3] His father Yitro Asheri, originally from
Adelaide, was converted by
St Kilda's Rabbi
Philip Heilbrunn in 1986. Yitro Asheri had moved from the Adelaide suburb of
Glenelg to the Jewish centre of
North Adelaide at the time of his conversion. About six months after his conversion he moved to Israel. He first settled in kibbutz
Sde Eliyahu where he learned some
Hebrew and later moved to a yeshiva headed by Rabbi
Haim Druckman. The Asheri family were one of the founding members of Itamar and have lived there from 1991.[4][5]
On Tuesday, June 27, 2006, Eliyahu's father, Yitro Asheri, initially submitted a missing-person report about his son to the
Ariel Police. According to Yitro he did not report his son's absence for two days because Eliyahu used to regularly disappear for extended periods in the past without keeping daily contact with his parents.[3][7] Asheri was last seen on 9:00 pm Sunday night, after he left the home of a friend in
Betar Illit[7] and was hitchhiking near the
French Hill intersection of Jerusalem by one of his classmates.[3]
In addition, on Tuesday, the Palestinian militant group
Popular Resistance Committees initially announced that the group has kidnapped a Jewish settler in the West Bank.[8][9]
On Wednesday, June 28, Abu Abir, the spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, stated that Asheri would be "butchered in front of TV cameras"[10] if Israel did not suspend its
Operation Summer Rains into the
Gaza Strip, which took place is in response to the kidnapping of
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) corporal
Gilad Shalit.[3][11][12][2][13][14][15] Later on that day the Popular Resistance Committees stated that Asheri was slain.[16]
Around 2:30 am on June 29, the IDF recovered the body of Asheri which had been buried in an open field near the village of
Beitunia, not far from
Ramallah.[17][18] Asheri's body was later transferred to the
Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for a forensic investigation.[19] The forensic investigation revealed that Asheri was shot to death by a bullet to the head from close range, possibly the same day on which he was abducted.[20] The IDF had been led to the site by the Palestinian militant Wasam Abu Ragila, who was a prime suspect of the murder of Asheri,[19] who had been arrested on Wednesday by the Israeli police anti-terror unit and IDF troops and who confessed in his investigation about his part in the kidnapping and murder of Asheri and gave specific details about the location of Asheri's body.[21][22][23]
Perpetrators
The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attack and presented Asheri's ID card.[24][25] A
Shin Bet investigation revealed that the abduction was carried out by a
Tanzim terror cell connected with the PRC in Ramallah on instruction from the PRC leadership in Gaza.[26]
Burial
Thousands attended Asheri's funeral which was held on the same day his body was found, during the afternoon hours on the
Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery in
Jerusalem.[6][21] The Chief Sephardic Rabbi
Shlomo Amar eulogized Asheri in his funeral.[21]
Aftermath
On the morning hours of 4 July 2006, during a joint operation conducted by the IDF and the Israel Security Authorities, the three
Tanzim militants whom murdered Eliyahu Asheri and whom were hiding in the a Palestinian Police headquarters building in Ramallah, were apprehended after a three-hour standoff.[27][28][29][30] The three men were Bassam Shafik Atiya Ahtiya, Khamze Salah Taktuk, and Ayham Fuab Nayef Kamamji. All three were reported to be members of the
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and had been serving in the security forces of the
Palestinian Authority.[28][31]
On 1 January 2007 Kamamji was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of Eliyahu Asheri.[32] In August 2021, he escaped from prison as part of the
Gilboa Prison break but was recaptured two weeks later.[33]
^"Eliyahu Pinhas Asheri". mfa.gov.
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2006. Retrieved 3 April 2011. June 25, 2006 - Eliahu Asheri, 18, of Itamar was kidnapped by terrorists from the Popular Resistance Committees while hitchhiking to Neveh Tzuf, where he was studying. His body was found on June 29 in Ramallah. It is believed that he was murdered shortly after his kidnapping.