Palestinians are detained during an operation by the Israeli military in the village of Awarta, in the Israeli occupied West Bank on March 12, 2011, as Israeli troops hunt those responsible for the killing of five members of an Israeli family at a nearby settlement.
Photograph by: AFP, Getty
WASHINGTON, March 12, 2011 (AFP) - The United States on Saturday called on the Palestinian Authority to "unequivocally condemn" the murder of an Israeli couple and three of their young children in the West Bank.
"There is no possible justification for the killing of parents and children in their home," the White House said in a statement condemning the attack.
"We call on the Palestinian Authority to unequivocally condemn this terrorist attack and for the perpetrators of this heinous crime to be held accountable," the statement by White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Media reports said a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11, and their parents were all stabbed to death in their home in an Israeli settlement.
Army radio said two children aged four and two had been spared and a third, a girl of 10, had discovered the massacre when she arrived home and alerted neighbours.
The radio said the killer or killers had managed to get past an electric fence surrounding the settlement.
© Copyright (c) AFP
Palestinians are detained during an operation by the Israeli military in the village of Awarta, in the Israeli occupied West Bank on March 12, 2011, as Israeli troops hunt those responsible for the killing of five members of an Israeli family at a nearby settlement.
Photograph by: AFP, Getty
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