Another Baruch Goldstein?

The shooting attack in Shfaram, in which at least four people have been murdered, was carried out by a 19-year old soldier, Eden Natan Zada, who left basic training two months ago and was declared a deserter.

Before deserting the army, Zada began telling others that he would refuse to take part in setting up the tent city to house soldiers who would be taking part in the pullout from Gaza.

Military police received intelligence that Tsubari became extremely religious, and attended yeshiva in the Samaria settlement of Tapuah, a stronghold of radicals.

Settlers say that Tsubari was not a Tapuach resident, but a youth who was hosted by local residents. Tsubari was known to police as a supporter of the extremist movement Kach, and as a pullout objectors.

If fears that the shooting was a nationalist attack are confirmed, the attack would join a list of nationalist murders carried out by Jews in recent years, the most notorious of which was the shooting attack by Baruch Goldstein, a doctor from Kiriyat Arba.

29 worshippers killed

In February 1994, in the early morning hours, Goldstein entered the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where hundreds of Muslims were praying.

Goldstein waited for the worshippers to bow towards Mecca before opening fire on them, murdering 29 people, and injuring dozens more.

A mob then killed Goldstein. After the attack, a wave of riots ensued in Palestinian and Israeli-Arab areas.

Another notorious attack was carried out by Ami Popper, a 21 year-old from Rishon Letzion, who was found guilty of murdering seven Arabs who were working as construction workers in 1990.

Popper lined the workers up and demanded to see their identity cards. He also stopped a passing vehicle which had Palestinian license plates, and forced the car’s occupants to join the workers at gunpoint. He then opened fire, killing seven people.