Two Israeli civilians were shot and killed in their car in front of their four children on Wednesday in a terrorist attack during the Feast of Tabernacles holiday, with a spokesperson for the Hamas terror group praising the murders. The IDF Spokesperson’s Twitter feed posted a translation of a Twitter post from Hamas spokesman Husam Badran as calling the stunning incident a “heroic operation”.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner tweeted that the four children, who all survived the attack despite being in the car with their murdered parents, range in age from four-months to nine-years-old. The terror attack took place near an Israeli community in Judea and Samaria, according to Lerner’s Twitter feed. The reaction from neighboring Palestinians to the assault was shocking.
In addition to the Hamas comments, Palestinians in the nearby town of Nablus reportedly set off fireworks in celebration of the terrorism, according to the Twitter feed of Ofir Gendleman, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Gendleman quoted Netanyahu as calling the incident “especially shocking and brutal”. Netanyahu was also quoted as saying in response to the attack that “it’s been proven once again that wild Palestinian incitement leads to terrorism & murder.”
Recently, tensions have soared over false and exaggerated Palestinian claims of concern regarding Israeli actions towards the Temple Mount, which is home to the Dome of the Rock.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in a statement released by his office, called those behind Wednesday’s shooting attack “bloodthirsty murderers” who “claimed the lives of a mother and a father, leaving their young children orphaned. The heart breaks at the magnitude of such cruelty and hatred.”
Reuven made it clear they would not back down in the face of the violence. “We will continue in our brave and unwavering fight against this cruel and heinous terrorism —of this our enemies can be sure. This is our duty, and the only way we can ensure the right of the orphans who lost their parents tonight, along with the right of all our children and grandchildren, to live with security and in peace, everywhere in the Land of Israel.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 1, 2015)