JERUSALEM: A relative says Israeli troops have arrested the brother of a 20-year-old Palestinian who stabbed to death three members of an Israeli family. The assailant, identified as Omar al-Abed, 20, had sneaked over the fence of the Israeli settlement of Halamish in the West Bank late yesterday and infiltrated the family's home, surprising them during a Sabbath dinner.
The army says the attacker killed a man and two of his children, while a woman was wounded. Al-Abed is hospitalised in Israel after being shot. Ibrahim al-Abed, an uncle, says troops searched the family home in the village of Kobar today and arrested al- Abed's brother Monir, 21. In a Facebook post yesterday, Omar al-Abed said he was avenging what he called Israel's "desecration" of a Jerusalem shrine.