2011 Itamar attack

The Itamar attack, also called the Itamar massacre, was a terrorist attack on an Israeli family in the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank that took place on 11 March 2011, in which five members of the same family were murdered in their beds. The victims were the father Ehud (Udi) Fogel, the mother Ruth Fogel, and three of their six children—Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, the youngest, a three-month-old infant. The infant was decapitated. The settlement of Itamar had been the target of several murderous attacks before these killings.

Amjad Awad and Hakim Awad, two young Palestinian cousins from the village of Awarta, were arrested for the murders. On 5 June 2011 the two men were indicted on five counts of murder, stealing weapons, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime. Both were later convicted. They initially denied any involvement in the attack but later proudly confessed to the murders, expressing no remorse and reenacting the attack before security officials.

The attack was harshly condemned by the United Nations, the Quartet on the Middle East, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other governments, as well as the Palestinian Authority and a number of non-governmental organizations. Xinhua, the official press agency of the People's Republic of China, stated that the attack was praised by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, who self-identifies as the military wing of Fatah, stated that "the heroic operation is a natural response to the (Israeli) occupation crimes against our people in West Bank and Gaza Strip." An opinion poll indicated that 63% of Palestinians opposed and about one-third supported the attack. One of the perpetrators of the murders was described as a "hero" and a "legend" by members of his family, during a weekly program. Itamar and its outposts are known as a particularly violent against their Palestinian neighbours.