Cannan: ‘No excuse for terrorism’
THE house of the “depraved individual” who carried out the Har Adar attack will be demolished and his relations will lose permits to work for Israelis, Benjamin Netanyahu has promised.
THE house of the “depraved individual” who carried out the Har Adar attack will be demolished and his relations will lose permits to work for Israelis, Benjamin Netanyahu has promised.
Opposition politicians raced to join the Prime Minister in condemning the attack and mourning the victims. “A moment before Yom Kippur, Israelis and Jews and are again being murdered just because they live in this land,” said Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party.
There was strong solidarity from international figures, including United Nations special envoy Nickolay Mladenov, and Australia’s ambassador to Israel Chris Cannan. “My thoughts are with the families of the victims of this morning’s terrible attack in Har Adar,” Cannan said. “There is no excuse for terrorism.”
Medics and rescuers who arrived on the scene have told The AJN of the horrific sights that they saw. Shlomo Petrover of Magen David Adom described it as a “very difficult situation” which involved a bloody scene with four bodies on the floor — three of the victims and one of the terrorist, who was fatally shot by a border policeman.
For some first responders, the psychological torment faced by families was worse than the physical scene. Daniel Katzenstein, a medic with United Hatzalah, was with family members of Or Arish as they waited for news about him. “They still did not know the state of their son at first, and they were incredibly distressed,” Katzenstein told The AJN. “We were preparing them emotionally during the state of doubt.” Then came the blow when the death was confirmed, and Katzenstein went about the impossible task of helping them to absorb the news.
As residents in Har Adar try to understand the puzzle of how the same friendly man who cleaned many of their homes and who lacked any security record turned in to a killer, Shin Bet has has prompted speculation that like with many attackers of recent months, the may have seen terror as a heroic escape from personal troubles. “The preliminary investigation indicates that he had significant personal and family problems, including those regarding family violence,” stated the Shin Bet shortly after the attack. “His wife fled to Jordan several weeks ago and left him with their children.”
Hamas praised the attack, and its spokesman Hazem Qassem released a statement saying it proves that violence against Israel is hotting up. The “operation confirms that our uprising youths will proceed their fight till the complete liberation of our land and the complete freedom of our people,” he said. Islamic Jihad claimed that the attack “slaps in the face all those who call for normalisation with Zionist entity, as it says that we’ll never cede one iota of our soil.”
For all the loss of life on Tuesday, there was a sense among security forces that things could well have turned out even worse. Moshe Dabush, the soldier who took charge of the situation, suggested that if guards had not been vigilant and prevented the terrorist from entering the settlement, the outcome could have been worse. They “prevented the terrorist from entering the area of the settlement, which at the time was full of life as the children went out to schools and kindergartens,” he said.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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