JERUSALEM, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- A guard at a national park near the West Bank was shot dead before dawn Sunday, heightening fears that Palestinian assassins were operating in the area.
The guard, Vladimir Rivin, 66, was killed in the Beit Guvrin National Park, apparently when he was preparing his meal. He was the third Israeli killed in that area since Dec. 21, said police Commander Effie Mor.
"It is worrying," he said.
Rivin was reportedly shot at close range. Several casings were found there, according to the Haaretz newspaper's website, but his own firearm was missing, suggesting his attacker made off with it.
Nothing else was taken and tracks led towards the West Bank, Israeli media reported.
In the earlier incidents in that area, a mother of four was stabbed to death at the entrance to her home and a man guarding surveyors was shot and killed near the route of the planned security fence Israel is building around the West Bank.
