Israeli Teen May Have Died in Arab Internet Ploy
L O N D O N, Jan. 19 -- It may be a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story, and if so, that is tragic enough. But there are hints the slaying of a 16-year-old Israeli boy may be rooted in something far more sinister.
Ophir Rakhum was a quiet, very bright, young man, who loved computers. He had his own Hebrew-language Web site of music and wrestling links. And he frequented Internet chat rooms.
The 16-year-old struck up a friendship with an Arab woman he met through e-mail. His friends say he even bragged about his Internet relationship with "an older woman" in her twenties.
On Friday Israeli soldiers in the West Bank arrested a Palestinian university student in her early twenties suspected of being that woman.
"The Israeli army arrested the young woman who took part in the murder of this young boy," a military spokeswoman said today. A senior Palestinian security official confirmed thearrest and said the woman surfed the Web from an Internet cafe, which means anyone could have used her computer terminal.
The Deadly Rendezvous
On Wednesday, Israeli and Palestinian officials say, the young lovers apparently planned a rendezvous in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
There are conflicting reports on what happened next, but Rakhum never returned home. His bullet-ridden body was found along a roadside.
The Jerusalem Post reports when the two lovers met, several masked men approached Rakhum and shot him, and then dragged his body to the side of the road.
If this was a Romeo and Juliet affair — revenge taken by Palestinian family members for dating an Israeli — more than likely the Arab girl would have been killed as well, but there's been no sign of her.
Love or Honey-trap?
Israeli Army radio reports suggest Rakhum was deliberately lured to the West Bank, robbed, and then killed by masked attackers.
Officials say Rakhum took a substantial amount of money with him, which is missing. No figure has been released.
Israeli newspaper reports claim a young Palestinian woman, apparently an accomplice, was spotted driving away from the scene of the murder following a vehicle carrying the masked gunmen.
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