Hundreds of people gathered at the outpost of Chomesh Friday morning to take part in the levayah of Yehuda Dimentman, Hy”d, as security forces intensified the search for the terrorists who opened fire on his vehicle and killed him the Thursday night.
Military and police forces were also heavily securing the event at Chomesh, where Dimentman had been learning at a yeshivah. Dimentman will be buried later in the day in Yerushalayim’s Har Hamenuchos cemetery.
Israeli forces conducted a number of arrests and set up roadblocks throughout the northern Shomron overnight Thursday as they continued searching for the killers.
Three additional infantry battalions of IDF troops, along with special forces and intelligence collection units, were deployed to Yehudah and Shomron following the attack, as the military, the Shin Bet and Israel Police scoured the Shechem area for the terrorists.
“At this time, security forces — the IDF, Shin Bet, police and additional forces — are pursuing the murderers. We’re going to put our hands on the terrorists and capture them,” said Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, head of the IDF’s Central Command.
“We’re responsible for defense here, and we’ll do everything in our ability to provide protection for the residents and capture the murderers and terrorists that carried out this attack,” Fuchs said.
According to Palestinian media, at least three Palestinians were arrested in overnight raids in the village of Burqa, just north of where the attack took place, outside the Chomesh outpost.
Investigators suspect the attack was carried out by two terrorists who fired on the vehicle from close range, according to Army Radio.
Brig. Gen. Avi Bluth, commander of the IDF division responsible for the area, said at least 10 bullets were fired into the car. He said the car was hit by an ambush from the side of the road, not from a passing vehicle, and that troops had found the spot where the terrorists sat before the attack.
“We are grabbing any threads there are to pull,” said Bluth, commander of the IDF’s Yehudah and Shomron Division.
Details about the investigation into the attack were barred from publication under a court-issued gag order.
Bluth said reinforcements were being brought into the area in the form of three infantry battalions, special forces and intelligence collection units. Additional reserve duty soldiers were brought in to assist.
Dimentman, 25, was a father of a nine-month-old son and was from the community of Shavei Shomron.
