2 Israeli Youths Are Bound, Slain; Nation ‘in an Uproar’

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Monday that Israel is “in an uproar” after the bodies of two Israeli youths, bound, beaten and stabbed, were found earlier in the day in a ravine just north of Jerusalem.

As word of the youths’ deaths spread, Jewish settlers stoned cars with West Bank license plates and broke out windows in at least 20 of them, officials said.

At least five Palestinians were injured and seven Israelis were arrested.

National Police Commissioner Yaakov Turner called on the populace “to act with restraint.”

The two youths, Ronen Karamani, 18, and Lior Tubul, 17, were last seen Saturday night at the close of the Jewish holy day when friends dropped them off on a main road leading north from Jerusalem.

They had said they intended to hitchhike to the home of Tubul’s girlfriend, who lives in the northern suburb of Givat Zeev and was about to leave on vacation in Eilat.

When the two youths did not arrive, police were notified, and search parties were organized. Helicopters, trained dogs and professional trackers took part in the search.

About 1:30 p.m. Monday, searchers found the bodies about 20 yards apart in a ravine off the road. One bore about 50 stab wounds, witnesses said, and the other’s skull had been bludgeoned.

“The way they were tied down, the way they were stabbed points definitely to a political murder,” Turner was quoted as saying. “There was no reason to think that these two normal, good teen-agers were murdered for any criminal reason.”

Late Monday, police began a massive search for the killers, believed to be Arabs who picked the boys up on the road. Nearby villages were placed under curfew.