The Murder of the Hatuel family HY”D was a shooting attack on May 2, 2004, in which Palestinian militants killed Tali Hatuel, a Jewish settler, who was eight months pregnant with her first son, and her four daughters, aged two to ten.
The attack took place near the Kissufim Crossing near their home in Gush Katif bloc of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. After shooting at the vehicle in which Hatuel was driving with her daughters, witnesses said the militants approached the vehicle and shot the occupants repeatedly at close range.
An alliance of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it was carried out in reprisal for the assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Abdelaziz Rantisi by the Israeli army some weeks earlier.
The attack shocked the Israeli public,and was classified by Amnesty International as a crime against humanity. On June 6, 2007, the IDF arrested Jihad Salah Saliman Abu Dahar, a Palestinian member of Islamic Jihad from the Khan Yunis area, who according to Shin Bet officials admitted to several acts of violence, including the attack on Hatuel and her daughters.
Tali Hatuel and her children were the first settlers in Gaza to be killed since 2002 and the attack “provoked extreme tension in Gaza”. The deaths brought the total number of people killed in the Second Intifada to 3,958 at that time, 905 Israelis and 2,983 Palestinians.
Following the attack, Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at a tower-block in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City that housed a radio station with links to Hamas which the IDF alleged had been broadcasting “incitement”. The attack on the building, which also contained apartments, businesses, and the two main Palestinian newspapers, al-Ayyam and al-Quds, collapsed part of the roof, cut off the building’s electricity and wounded seven people. Hours later, an Israeli air strike on a car in the West Bank city of Nablus killed four people described as members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades by Palestinian sources. The IDF described them as “senior terrorists” who had been responsible for several attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.
On May 9, 2004, a week after the attack, two gunmen reportedly dressed in women’s clothing, opened fire on about 200 to 300 people attending a heavily guarded memorial service on the Kissufim road in the southern Gaza Strip for Tali Hatuel and her daughters.
Mourners had to take cover behind vehicles during the 20 to 30 minute exchange of fire. The gunmen opened fire on the attendees from about 300 meters away. David Hatuel was not present having been stopped on the way by soldiers once the shooting started. No Israelis were injured in the attack. The body of one gunman killed by the Israel Defense Forces was recovered after a search of the area but the IDF said that they believed a second gunman was also killed. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack
May the neshoma of Tali Hatuel and her 4 young daughters be elevated.
Get OnlySimchas News Live Updates by email and never miss our top breaking stories 
Wikipedia and JDL Canada contributed to this story