'We are sure our father was killed in a terrorist attack'

Twenty-four hours after he was found lying unconscious with a severe head wound in the middle of a road in the Jordan Valley on Monday night, Avi Ben-Zion, 63, died in Petach Tikva's Beilinson Hospital on Tuesday. Ben-Zion's family members believe he was the victim of a nationalistically motivated attack.

Soldiers from the IDF's Duvdevan anti-terror unit apprehended three suspects in the Palestinian town of Qabalan, southeast of Nablus in Samaria.

Ben-Zion was a resident of Moshav Netiv Hagdud in the Jordan Valley, which he helped establish, and was the father of four and the grandfather of five. He and his wife, Niva, grew peppers, figs and grapes.

"He was an amazing man, humble, modest, a farmer in his soul," said Jordan Valley Regional Council head David Elhayani.

Neighbors said Ben-Zion employed hundreds of workers, Israelis and Palestinians, all of whom he treated respectfully and equally.

"I'm sitting here and cannot believe this is what happened to my father," said Revital Ben-Zion-Cohen, one of his four daughters. "They told us that when the Palestinian workers came to work in the morning and were told the news, they burst into tears."

After his family members were unable to contact him Monday night and then heard news reports of an attack in the area, they began to understand that the worst had happened.

"Mom felt that something terrible happened to Dad. She called my little sister and told her, 'Get ready, we are going to Beilinson.' Mom asked to be allowed into the intensive care unit to see it was really Dad. They asked her how she was sure it was him, and she said: 'I know.'"

Ben-Zion was on his way home from central Israel when police believe a Palestinian car forced him to stop, after which one or two assailants pulled him from his vehicle.

Based on the trauma to his head, it is believed he fought his assailants and that they may have run him over while fleeing the scene. Police were unable to identify him for some time because he was without identification.

Paramedic Haim Ratzabi, who arrived at the scene, said: "An unconscious man was found in the middle of the road in critical condition with a bleeding head wound. We provided field treatment and evacuated him by army helicopter."

Meanwhile, Shai District Police investigators, in conjunction with the Shin Bet security agency, were investigating the incident. Based on the current evidence, it appears the incident began as a criminally motivated act -- a carjacking -- and developed into a nationalistically motivated crime when Ben-Zion was beaten and then run over. The three suspects, who all have extensive criminal records of car theft in Judea and Samaria, were taken for questioning by the Shin Bet security agency.

Revital Ben-Zion-Cohen said the family was convinced their father was the victim of a terrorist attack.

"If it was just a theft, the criminals would have taken the car and fled," she said. "We are sure without question that this was a terrorist attack because he was a Jew."

Discussing the arrest of the three suspects, Ben-Zion's daughter expressed hope that "they will brought to justice, even though there is no comfort in that. But maybe we will feel regardless that some sort of justice was done here. He was a warm, incredible person; there was no one like him and there never will be."

Ben-Zion's funeral was scheduled to be held on Wednesday at Moshav Netiv Hagdud. His family has agreed to donate his organs.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו