3 Palestinians arrested in murder of US tourist

[January 26, 2011]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli police on Wednesday announced the arrests of three Palestinians in the killing of an American tourist late last year, saying the men belonged to a crime ring that carried out a wave of attacks to avenge the death of a top Hamas militant.

Kristine Luken, 44, was stabbed to death in December while hiking with a friend in a forest outside Jerusalem. Police say the three men told interrogators they wanted to kill a Jew -- Luken was in fact a Christian.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said the three men, who are from the West Bank, are also suspects in other crimes, including the murder of an Israeli woman and an attack on two other hikers.

Franco said the gang's ringleader claimed those hikers were attacked in retaliation for the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai last year. Israel is widely believed to have murdered the Hamas operative, though it has never acknowledged the allegations.

Another 10 Palestinians have been arrested as members of the same cell, and are accused as accomplices in a string of murders, rapes, robberies and shooting attacks against the Israeli military.

Franco said the Luken murder provided the thread that connected all the other alleged crimes.

Luken was involved with the "Church's Ministry among Jewish people," first in the U.S., then in England, where she became a ministry staffer. The church is active in Israel.

She was hiking with Kaye Susan Wilson in the wooded hills outside Jerusalem on Dec. 18 when the two were attacked by Arab men wielding what looked like a bread knife, said Wilson, who was wounded in the attack.

Wilson said she escaped to a nearby road after pretending to be dead. Luken's body, hands bound and bearing multiple stab wounds, was discovered the following day.

The forest is inside Israel but close to the border with the West Bank and the Palestinian villages of Husan and Wadi Fukin.

[Associated Press]

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