An Israeli police officer comforts a relative of slain police officer Yehezkel Ramzarkar yesterday. (Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP)

Two Jewish Israeli traffic policemen, identified as David Rabinowitz and Yehezkel Ramzamkar, apparently stopped to help a driver who pretended to be stuck with a flat tire, were shot to death in the head at point-blank range by Arab terrorists on Sunday night.

A group calling itself the Imad Mughniyeh Group, named for the Hezbollah terror mastermind who was killed in Syria last year, claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday.

The terror attack took place Sunday night close to 8:30 p.m., just south of Masua junction in the Jordan Valley, near the ancient city of Jericho.

Jericho is controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and hosts the training base for its security services, which are now being assisted by American military advisers.

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A taxi driver who passed by noticed a police car standing at the side of the road and thought it had been involved in a car accident. He alerted the security forces,

who were astounded to find the two police officers shot in the head in their squad car.

The policemen were in their seats, with their handguns in their holsters, the car engine was running and the driver’s foot was still on the gas pedal. The gearshift was in reverse. At this stage, the policemen were still alive, but when medics arrived at the scene

one was no longer alive and the other could not be saved.

In a search conducted in the squad car, a shell casing was found, apparently from a 9-mm. handgun. No bullet marks were found on the car itself, and the windows were intact.

Near the squad car, bolts and a car jack belonging to another vehicle were found, which led to the later confirmed conclusion the police officers had fallen victim to a trap set by terrorists who had staged a car malfunction.

It is believed the terrorist shooter succeeded in inserting his handgun into the squad car and shooting the policemen at point blank range.

The two police officers who were murdered were known and held in high regard in the Jordan Valley.

Commander of the Samaria and Judea District Police’s traffic division Dep. Cmdr. Doron Yisraeli, who was their direct commander, related: “These were well-trained, professional policemen. They had served in the area for a number of years and knew all the dangers.”

Jewish Israeli residents of the area responded to the Arab terror attack yesterday with anger.

“It was clear to any reasonable person that the policy of removing roadblocks and releasing terrorists, which the outgoing government continued to impose on the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) until the last days of its term, would exact a heavy price,” said Judea and Samaria Council Chairman Danny Dayan. “Unfortunately, the government did not heed the repeated warnings-and this is the result.”

Uri Ariel, a National Union Party Knesset member, called the attack “an immediate illustration of the bloody price of removing roadblocks in the Nablus area.” He pledged the new Netanyahu-led government would not allow future such attacks.

“Even if it becomes apparent that this was a terror attack, we have to rally ourselves and return to normal routine,” summed up Jordan Valley Regional Council Chairman David Elhayani. “We should let our security forces do their job and investigate the incident, and I am sure that in the end they will capture the terrorists.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.