15-year-old Palestinian arrested for Otniel murder

Ya’alon: Teenager taught since infancy by PA’s education system to hate and to sanctify death.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: JANUARY 20, 2016 00:05
IDF and Shin Bet raid home of Otniel terrorist
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and elite Duvdevan unit members arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager early Tuesday morning in his home in the Palestinian village of Beit Amra for the murder of mother-of-six Dafna Meir in nearby Otniel.
A security source said, “He is being questioned. We will release further details as the investigation proceeds.”
During the raid, Duvdevan unit members, accompanied by Shin Bet intelligence agents, moved in on the teenager’s home, arresting him in his bed and taking him into custody.
The arrest came following intensive intelligence and operational activities by the Shin Bet and the IDF to track down the suspect.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon visited Otniel and received a briefing from OC Central Command, Maj.-Gen.
Roni Numa, and the commander of the Hebron Brigade, Col. Yariv Ben Ezra on the recent developments. The defense minister and IDF officers then paid a condolence visit at the Meir family home.
Ya’alon paid tribute to Dafna Meir, a woman whose remarkable and multiple accomplishments became known to the Israeli people came in recent days, he said.
“Who can find a virtuous woman?” he asked, quoting the Book of Proverbs. “The great loss is even more prominent in light of the cruelty of the 15-year-old murderer, who grew up in an environment that taught him from the time he was a baby to hate and to sanctify death. This is the 15-year-old youth, and a youth carried out an attempted murder in Tekoa, too. Of course, this is the result of education in the Palestinian Authority. Institutionalized education, that begins in infancy, passes through kindergartens and schools – and this is the result.”
Ya’alon praised the work of the IDF and the Shin Bet in capturing the terrorist.
“There is a wave of terrorism.
We will know how to defeat it, I have no doubt.
It requires determination, awareness, but eventually we will defeat this wave of terrorism, also,” he said.