(JTA) — Israeli police said the cause of a West Bank car crash last week that killed an Israeli man and his infant son was a terrorist attack.
Israel Police said Sunday that the crash on Sept. 23 near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba may have occurred after a rock was thrown at the car; investigators found a large rock with blood on it in the overturned car. The rock appeared to have crashed through the windshield, Haaretz reported, citing a police representative.
The Israel Defense Forces and police had said last Friday that the crash, which killed Asher Palmer, 25, and his infant son Yonatan, was an accident.
Police will compare the blood on the rock to a sample of blood taken from Asher Palmer’s body after Israel’s Supreme Court intervened following the family’s refusal to permit an autopsy. Palmer’s face reportedly was bashed in, possibly as a result of the rock. The funerals were scheduled for Sunday evening.
The Hebron District police force is currently investigating 18 accidents as a result of rocks being thrown at moving vehicles.
In a Twitter post immediately after the accident, David Ha’Ivri, a settler leader who lives in Kiryat Arba, said the car was overturned after Palestinians threw rocks at it.
In the past, Palestinians have rioted after accidents have been reported in their communities as deliberate attacks; the first intifada erupted in 1987 after a lethal road accident in the Gaza Strip.
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