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| Murder of Yaron and Efrat Ungar | |
|---|---|
| Part ofIsraeli–Palestinian conflict | |
  The attack site | |
| Native name | רצח ירון ואפי (אפרת) אונגר |
| Location | Route 383 near moshavGefen |
| Coordinates | 31°44′27″N34°52′42″E / 31.74083°N 34.87833°E /31.74083; 34.87833 |
| Date | June 9, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-06-09) |
Attack type | Shooting attack |
| Weapons | Machine gun[1] |
| Deaths | 2 Israeli civilians |
| Perpetrator | Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades[2] |
| 2 Palestinian gunmen | |
Themurder of Yaron andEfrat Ungar was a shooting attack on June 9, 1996, during which two Palestinian gunmen killed Yaron and Efrat Ungar as they drove on a road betweenJerusalem andTel Aviv,Israel nearBeit Shemesh. The Palestinian gunmen fired twenty bullets from theirMitsubishi van into the couple's car. Although the bullets missed the couple's one-year-old son, who was in a car seat in the back, both Yaron and Efrat were killed.
The Ungars estate suedYasser Arafat, thePalestine Liberation Organization, and the Islamic groupHamas in March 2000 in aProvidence, Rhode Island,United States federal court house for wrongful death due to the defendants' encouragement of terrorism in the Kiryat Arba region. Although the estate won $116 million in 2004, the judgment was overturned on appeal in 2010, while the Ungars estate, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Palestinian Authority entered into a confidential settlement in February 2011 to end the case.
Yaron and Efrat Ungar were a married couple who, along with their one-year-old son Yishai and two-year-old son Dvir, lived inKiryat Arba, an urbanIsraeli settlement on the outskirts ofHebron, in theJudean Mountains region of theWest Bank.[3] In 1996, country ownership of the region was disputed and residence of Kiryat Arba had been subjected to multiple terrorist attacks.[3]
On June 9, 1996, the couple drove back from a wedding they attended during the night, on theKiryat Malachi-Beit Shemesh road (Route 383) with their one-year-old son Yishai, who was seated in acar seat in the back. The Ungars were on their way to pick up their son Dvir from his grandmother's house.[3][4]
When they drove near moshavGefen, two Palestinian gunmen pulled up alongside in aMitsubishi van and fired 20 bullets into the front seat of the Ungar's moving car.[3] Both Yaron and Efrat were killed but Yishai survived.[3]
It was later determined that one of the weapons, aKalashnikov assault rifle, was the same weapon used in a January 1996 attack that killed two Israeli soldiers.[3]
The attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant cell, belonging to theIzz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, from the West Bank village ofSurif.[2]
In March 2000, the Unger estate, filed a lawsuit against defendantsYasser Arafat, thePLO, and the Islamic groupHamas inProvidence, Rhode Island because the estate held dual citizenship in America and Israel (Yaron was born inNew York City) and the Israeli court appointed executor for the couple's estate, attorney David J. Strachman, was from Providence.[7][8] The estate sought $250 million in the civil lawsuit for the June 9, 1996 drive-by shooting murders of Ungars nearBet Shemesh,Israel due to the defendants encouragement of terrorism in the region.[7] Although his law practice did not include international terrorism civil law at the time, Strachman took the position of lead attorney in the United States and withNitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli attorney, human rights activist, and the founder ofShurat HaDin Israeli Law Center, providing legal support in Israel.[8] In January 2004, the estate won a judgment against Hamas in the Providence federal court for the Ungar murders and ordered Hamas to pay the families of the Ungars $116 million.[9] In July of that year, the estate obtained a default judgment against thePNA and thePLO in the same case. Six years later, in 2010, the appeals court overturned the ruling and sent the case back to U.S. District Court to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to present their side.[10] In February 2011, the Ungar estate obtained a confidential settlement and ended the case.[11]
On 18 October 2011 Rahman Ghanimat, who was originally sentenced to 5 life sentences for his part in the killing of Yaron and Efrat Ungar, was released to Gaza as part of theGilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.[12]
