January 3, 2003
Note from Likud: the terrorists from Arafat’s own organisation Fatah
make no distinction, Jews have to be killed, even if they are elderly and friendly
to Arabs.
Police and security forces discovered yesterday afternoon the scorched body of
a 70-year-old Israeli man who had been missing since Wednesday. The body of
Massoud Mahlouf Allon, a resident of Moshav Menahemya, was found in a
burned-out car in the northern Jordan Valley following a widescale police search.
Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for killing Allon, saying
the murder was in revenge for the killing of one of its members by IDF soldiers
several months ago in the West Bank village of Tamoun.
Allon left his home Wednesday morning in his van, heading for the Arab villages
in the Jordan Valley. Members of his family told police that he used to collect
used clothing and blankets and give them to Bedouin and Palestinians there.
When he did not return home by nightfall and no word had been received from
him, his worried family informed the Tiberias police.
At the same time, the news agencies and al-Jazeera TV published reports of the
killing of an Israeli in the Jordan Valley by the Al-Aqsa Brigades. The
organization’s Website also published a blurred picture of an Israeli ID card and
said the body had been left in the fields.
Elon regularly traveled to the Israeli Arab village of Tubas – where his
abandoned vehicle was found Thursday (2 Jan.) – to hand out clothes to the
children who live there, his son Yaacov told Israel Radio.
Police and security personnel immediately mounted a search, accompanied by
hundreds of volunteers on foot and in jeeps, with the help of trained dogs. With
the belief that Allon was still alive, more searchers, including dozens of Allon’s
relatives and Menahemya residents joined in the manhunt.
A military helicopter was sent in the air after eyewitnesses reported seeing the
missing man near the Jordan Valley settlements of Ro’i and Beqa’ot. It was in
that area that the helicopter spotted the burned-out vehicle belonging to Allon,
lying in a dry river bed.
The searchers, who immediately headed for the site on foot, found the body,
which had been badly mutilated. Allon’s skull had been crushed and his
body had been set alight. It was taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute
for an autopsy and police hoped they would be able to establish where and
when the killing took place.
The area where the body was found is off-limits to Israelis who are not
accompanied by security forces.
