Israeli Woman Who Went Jogging Found Dead in West Bank Forest

Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, are investigating the death of an Israeli woman whose body was found in the Reihan Forest in the northern West Bank a day after she left her home in the Tal Menashe settlement to go jogging. Her family reported her missing on Sunday evening. Her body was found early on Monday morning.

The woman was identified as Esther Hurgan, 52, a mother of 6. Police said her body showed signs of violence, but did not identify the apparent murder as a terror attack saying it was investigating all possibilities. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that her head was smashed with a rock.

The Samaria Regional Council labeled Hurgan’s death a terror attack. Yossi Dagan said in a statement posted on Facebook that “Esther went for a run and sports activity in a forest two minutes from her home in Tal Menashe – in the center of the State of Israel, … and was murdered with sick brutality – barbaric, as if we were in the period of the caveman.  I want to say clearly to these barbarians from the Palestinian Authority in front of the whole world: you will never break us.”