Henkin couple’s killers say attack was revenge for Duma

The Palestinian men who gunned down Eitam and Naama Henkin in front of their four children last month planned the attack as revenge for the fatal firebombing of the Dawabsha family earlier this year, according to quotes from their interrogations cleared for publication Monday.

“We got together and decided that we had to do something as revenge over the attack against the Dawabsha family,” one of the terrorists, a Hamas member named Samir, told his interrogators. He was referring to a July firebombing incident in the Palestinian village of Duma in the West Bank that killed a toddler and his parents in their home. Defense officials say radical settlers carried out that attack, although police have yet to arrest suspects.

He said that he and his accomplice lay in wait on the night of the attack, October 1. When they saw the Henkins’ vehicle approaching, he said, he asked him to overtake the car, “and while he was overtaking it I fired.

“I remember firing 10 or 15 automatic rounds at the Israeli vehicle,” he continued. “At that moment the Israeli car, which was driven by an Israeli citizen, stopped, and we did too. I got out of the car with the gun, switched the clip and went over to the woman who was sitting next to the driver.”

He described how, as he was approaching Naama Henkin, a bloodied Eitam Henkin was struggling with his accomplice and attempting to grab his gun from him. He opened fire, killing Eitam Henkin and also wounding his accomplice.

“I don’t know how many shots I fired at the man, who was killed on the spot. Meanwhile, as I was firing, one of the bullets hit Carem [his accomplice’s] left hand,” he said. “I was attacked by the woman. I shot a few bullets at her and killed her on the spot.”

As for the kids in the backseat, he said, “I saw that inside the car were three or four children, but I didn’t fire at them. Then we got in the car and drove away.”

He did not express remorse during his interrogation, saying, “I don’t think the people I killed were innocent.”