Jewish man bludgeoned to death outside his West Bank home

(JTA) — Israeli police are searching for two Palestinians who are believed to have killed a Israeli army colonel outside his Jordan Valley home.

The man, reserve colonel Sariya Ofer, was bludgeoned to death Thursday night by the two men who waited outside his home in Shadmot Mehola, a West Bank settlement, wielding an axe and metal rod, Army Radio reported.

Uri Ariel, Israel’s housing minister, told Army Radio Friday that the killing was a terrorist attack and added that he had issued instructions to “increase settlement” in Shadmot Mehola in response to the attack. But police said they have not yet determined whether the attack was an act of terrorism.

Ofer, who was in his fifties, was among the founders of the Israel Air Force’s Shaldag special missions commando unit and a former commander of the Shaked commando unit. Police said they did not know whether the man was targeted because of his military record.

His girlfriend, Monique Omer, also in her fifties, escaped the house when she heard the struggle. A passerby found her lying by the side of a road with injuries she had sustained during her flight, according to the report.