Suspect arrested in West Bank attack that left man, son dead
Published November 15, 2015
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Shin Bet security service arrested a suspect in the West Bank shooting that left a man and his son dead on the eve of his daughter’s wedding.
The suspect was arrested over the weekend in the attack on a family car traveling near the West Bank settlement of Otniel, about 10 miles from Hebron. Seven family members were traveling in the same car to the Shabbat pre-wedding celebrations of their daughter and sister. Rabbi Yaakov Litman, 40, and his son, Netanel, 18, were killed in the late Friday afternoon attack. Litman’s wife and son, 16 were injured in the attack. Three daughters ages 5, 9, and 11, were treated for shock.
The alleged suspect implicated himself in the attack during questioning, the Shin Bet said in a statement. The car and the weapon believed to have used in the attack also were seized by the Shin Bet.
“Whether in Paris or Hebron, Jerusalem or New York, we must fight a bitter and stubborn struggle against those who massacre innocent people, against those who murder in cold-blood,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Saturday night in a eulogy at the funeral in Jerusalem where the two men were buried side by side.
“We are not afraid, we do not surrender and we do not retreat – Even when our blood, the blood of fathers and sons is spilled, we remember that our roots are planted in the earth of this land,” Rivlin said.
“How painful… in place of a wedding there is a funeral of a father and son! Where is the mercy on the bride?” said Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau in his eulogy. “A wedding has turned to grief and sorrow.”
The wedding is scheduled for Tuesday.
Yaakov Litman was a teacher at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva High School in Jerusalem, where eight students were killed in the yeshiva’s library by a Palestinian terrorist in 2008. Netanel Litman was an ambulance volunteer for Magen David Adom.
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