Rabbi Eitam Henkin, who was murdered along with his wife Naama in a brutal Hamas shooting attack in September, struggled valiantly against the gunmen, transcripts from the investigation reveal.
“While our vehicle was parallel to an Israeli vehicle (i.e. Henkin’s), I fired the M16,” Yahya Muhammad Nayif Abdallah Haj Hamed, one of the main terrorists involved, stated in the transcripts. Channel 10 revealed the full text to the press Monday night. “I remember I shot 10-15 bullets of automatic fire toward the Israeli vehicle.”
“At that moment the Israeli vehicle, with the Jewish driver, stopped,” he continued, adding that he took the time to reload.
As he approached, Hamed noted that Rabbi Eitam began struggling with Karam Lutfi Fathi Razek, another prime terrorist involved in the shooting. Hamed and Razek were tasked with shooting the driver and passenger – Rabbi Eitam and Naama – at close-range, through the windows on either side.
Hamed fired “several bullets” at Rabbi Eitam and killed him on the spot; Razek was injured in the process, however, crucially dropping his weapon and causing the terrorists to flee without harming the Henkins’ children in the vehicle.
At that point Naama jumped out of the car and began struggling with him, he revealed.
“I was attacked by the woman; I also shot several bullets at her as well and killed her on the spot,” he said.
Hamed allegedly saw the Henkin children in the vehicle, but did not shoot at them. Instead, he returned to the vehicle and told the rest of the terror cell he had murdered the couple.
The terrorist also stated that he deliberately did not shoot the children – in contradiction to earlier analysis from security officials estimating the cell had simply fled after the attack injured Razek.
“First of all, the Muslim religion forbids the killing of children,” Hamed stated. “Besides, my character does not allow me to kill or harm a baby.”
He then quickly qualified, however, that “our religion also says ‘blood for blood,’ so that the settlers will realize that everything they do has a price – so they will think 100 times before they do anything else.”
