Ro’i Arbel, 28, father of five, including two-month-old triplets, was
laid to rest this afternoon in Dolev, northwest of Jerusalem. He was murdered
on his way home last night by Palestinian terrorists.

Ro’i Arbel, 28, father of five – including two-month-old triplets – was laid
to rest this afternoon in Dolev, northwest of Jerusalem.

At about 7:15 PM Tuesday night, Palestinian terrorists waiting on the side of
the road fired at an Israeli car with four passengers not far from the
community of Talmon. Arbel was killed on the spot, the driver and another passenger
suffered “moderate” injuries, and the fourth passenger went into a state of
shock. The driver managed to continue on until Talmon, from where the wounded
were evacuated to a Jerusalem hospital.

The terrorists are believed to be of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Brigades, under the
command of Yasser Arafat.

Ro’i leaves behind five children: two daughters Ohr (meaning Light, age 5)
and Hodaya (Thanks, 3) and the triplets – two girls and a boy. The boy remains
in a neonatal unit, and has not yet been circumcised and is therefore not
named.

Ro’i's funeral procession began in the community synagogue of Talmon, where
he lived with his wife Hagit and their five children, and continued to nearby
Dolev. The Arbel family moved only six months ago from a caravan (mobile home
without wheels) into its permanent home in Talmon. His widow Hagit eulogized
him, saying that their baby son will be named “in accordance with the name that
you chose before you died.” “Whatever I have in life is in your merit,” she
said, and concluded, “We will continue to keep up our lives as they were with
you.”

Ro’i grew up in the Shomron town of Kedumim, studied at the yeshiva high
school in Karnei Shomron, and served as an officer in the Golani Brigade in
Lebanon. Three of his classmates were killed in Lebanon, including his good friend
Yeshai Shechter in 1996. After completing military service, Ro’i studied
electrical engineering in Tel Aviv University, and was employed by Motorola in
Herzliya.

Friends and relatives arrived in the Arbel home last night, trying to comfort
Hagit and expressing their shock at the loss. Friends said that he was “just
a fantastic person and a true friend” and someone who “always helped people.”

Arutz-7′s Haggai Seri-Levy reports that IDF Intelligence Chief Gen.
Ze’evi-Farkash said yesterday that “anarchy and chaos” reign in the Palestinian
Authority. The General told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that
Abu Ala, the PA’s “Prime Minister,” has given up and is not functioning. “Arafat
is everything in the PA, and he is employing a policy of foot-dragging,
without fighting terror and continuing to fund the Al-Aksa Brigades.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2004 and is filed under hotnews.