U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Martin Indyk is on his way back to the region today (Thursday) to officially revive the talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

State Department spokesperson Marty Harf told reporters at a briefing that both sides have told Secretary of State John Kerry they want to continue negotiations beyond the current April 29 deadline.

Neither side was willing to meet after the terrorist attack in Judea on Monday that killed senior police officer Baruch Mizrahi, a father of five, and wounded his wife and 9-year-old son. The attacker or attackers were standing on the side of the road on Highway 35 near Hevron, shooting at vehicles with Israeli license plates, a witness said. One arrest has allegedly been made but no details were released. Mizrahi was on his way with his family to a seder in Kiryat Arba to celebrate the Passover holiday when he was murdered.

Talks that were scheduled for Wednesday night were cancelled. Both sides were unwilling to negotiate in the face of another Arab terror attack on Jews using an AK-47 – a weapon supplied to PA police by the U.S. military, among others – ostensibly to strengthen its forces so they could ‘fight terror.’

On Thursday, those talks are set to resume with Indyk, Israel’s Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, and the PA’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

PA spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudaineh told a media briefing in Ramallah that an agreement is already in place to extend the talks.

“The Palestinian commitment is clear to the Israelis and the Americans, and this commitment is that the talks will continue until April 29, and that Israel should release the fourth group of prisoners,” Rudaineh told reporters. “This is the basic Palestinian demand. This is not a Palestinian condition, but it is a Palestinian demand, which was agreed upon with the U.S. secretary of state according to which 104 pre-Oslo prisoners would be released, and in return we would not go to the United Nations organizations for nine months… Now the talks with the Israelis and the Americans are continuing to the end of this month to discuss the basis that could lead to an extension of the negotiations,” he said.

Various proposals are being advanced by Israel in order to wrestle with the issue of the Israeli Arab prisoners among the fourth and final group that was held back due to lack of progress in the talks.

The Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party has threatened to leave the government if those prisoners – Israeli citizens who are all Arab terrorists – are freed.

One option would be to revoke their citizenship and deport them. Another would be to simply send the entire group to Gaza or abroad. In either case, resistance from the PA is expected – as usual.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blamed Palestinian Authority incitement for the terrorist attack that left a 46-year-old police officer dead, and his 28-year-old pregnant wife and nine year old son wounded.

A terrorist opened fire at Israeli civilian vehicles traveling along Highway 35, near the western edge of Hevron. Israeli soldiers closed off the area in search of the perpetrators but have yet to make arrests.

Netanyahu issued the statement to media following the murder of Israel Police Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi, of blessed memory. He and his family were traveling on the road to a seder to celebrate Passover in Kiryat Arba at the time of the attack.

Mizrahi is to be laid to rest at 1:00 p.m. local time Wednesday at the military cemetery in Jerusalem, Mount Herzl, in the section reserved for the Israel Police.

Mizrahi served as director of Technology in the SigInt Unit for the Intelligence division of Israel Police since June 2011. He served in various roles in the IDF for 25 years, ending his military career as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 8200 Intelligence Unit.

“Baruch z’l devoted his entire life to two great loves – his family and the State of Israel,” said his commander. His entire unit and Israel Police released a statement expressing their joining the grief of the family and their wishes for a speedy recovery for his wife.

The terrorist responsible for the murder was standing by the side of a road, waiting for targets, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, also known as a Kalashnikov. He also shot at other cars passing on the road, according to the Tazpit News Agency, which received reports of attacks from other drivers.

The AK-47 is the same weapon supplied to the Palestinian Authority police force by the U.S. government, via Jordan, during military training at an American-funded base in Jericho during the Bush administration under the supervision of U.S. Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton.

“This reprehensible murder of a man who was traveling with his family to a meal for the Festival of Freedom is the result of the incitement for which the Palestinian Authority is responsible. The Palestinian Authority continues to constantly broadcast – in its official media – programs that incite against the existence of the State of Israel,” he said.

“Last night this incitement was translated into the murder of a father who was traveling with his family to celebrate the first night of Passover. The incitement of the Palestinian Authority continues in that it has yet to see fit to condemn this abominable and reprehensible act,” Netanyahu pointed out.

Government Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) released  a statement warning that every PA prisoner release emboldens the terrorists, and demanded the government cancel all future releases. Ariel said the government should require the PA to cancel any unilateral steps at the United Nations as a precondition to continuing any final status talks.

The United States has supplied more than $161 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority for paramilitary training for its security forces. This includes provision of assault rifles, ammunition and other military supplies. There have been a number of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens committed by so-called “PA police officers” using this equipment.

Although the United States has had the fantasy that the PA security forces would enforce agreements made by its government to abandon violence and restrain terrorist groups in order to “enable” a “two state solution” — that has not worked out. Instead the PA paramilitary force has simply continued along its traditional path of enforcing the corruption of its leaders. Moreover, some of its members have joined – or returned to — terrorist ranks, bringing along with them new knowledge, training and equipment gifted to them from the American government.

These new police terrorists are more dangerous than the garden-variety operatives because they often appear to be security personnel, while being the very opposite.

A military court has convicted the second of two Arabs who killed Asher Palmer and his two-your-sold son by throwing a huge rock at their vehicle near Kiryat Arba in 2011.

Last July, the court sentenced Waal al-Arjeh to a double life sentence plus 58 tears in jail for the murder, the first time military judges have recognized rocks as murder weapons. Ali Sa’ada, convicted on Monday for the same crime, now faces a similar sentence.

Both terrorists smashed Palmer’s windshield. Palmer, who was hit in the head by the rock, lost control of his car and overturned. Israeli insisted that Palmer and his son died in a traffic accident and did not tie the deaths with  rock-throwing until the publication of photographs that clearly showed a bloodstained rock, the size of a cinder block or small boulder, and a hole in the car’s windshield.

The attorney for Michael Palmer, Asher’s father, said that al Arjeh, who worked for the  Palestinian Authority security force, was the ringleader of a terrorist cell that attacked Jewish motorists several times.

A Palestinian Authority Arab approached the Kiryat Arba security gate on Thursday evening. An alert IDF soldier from the Givati Brigade noticed something unusual about the man and the way he was moving.

The IDF solider raised his rifle, just as the PA Arab was approaching the gate and some nearby Jewish children.

The terrorist dropped his weapon and was arressted.

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists returned to one of their favorite spots south of Jerusalem Wednesday and attack passing Jewish motorists, injuring one girl.

Near Hevron, the IDF arrested four Arabs were arrested, including those who had prepared firebombs to hurl at vehicles on Highway 60 at Beit Umar, located between Gush Etzion and Kiryat Arab-Hevron.

12:17 PM An Egged bus #160 went off the road near Kiryat Arba on Road 60.

Approximately 20 people were injured, 2 seriously. There are no dead, and a helicopter has been called in to transport some of the more seriously wounded.

A group of leftists interrupted a construction job undertaken by the Ministry of Defense, to pave a path between Kiryat Arba and Hebron.

At first, it looked like they were not going to be able to block the work, but in the end, the MOD workers were forced to stop working.

The work had all the required government permits.

A Palestinian Authority rock-throwing terrorist was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and another 58-year sentence for the murders of an Israeli man and his infant son ear Kiryat Arba two years ago.

Waal al-Araja, whose wages as a PA security officer are partly paid for by American and European Union aid, was sentenced Tuesday by the Ofer Military Court for the killing of dual Israeli-American citizen Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan in September 2011.

Palmer’s car overturned after a rock crashed through the windshield. Police originally tried to sweep the attack under a diplomatic rug and determined that the crash on Route 60 near Kiryat Arba an accident, but the publication of photographic evidence of a bloodstained rock on the car forced police to investigate a second time, when they agreed that the Palmers were victims of a terrorist attack.

Al-Araja admitted during the trial that he threw the rocks, but said he did not intend to kill anyone. The judges said in their verdict earlier this month that Al-Araja understood the harm that throwing rocks could cause and that he intended to harm his victims.