Hundreds of Israelis paid their last respects on Tuesday to Elisha Anteman and Harel Masoud, two victims of the day’s Palestinian terrorist attack near Eli in the Binyamin region of Samaria.
The funerals of Ofer Fairman of Eli and Nachman Shmuel Mordoff of Ahiya took place on Wednesday.
Anteman, 17, a 12th-grade student at a seminary in Eli, was buried in the town.
Masoud, 21, had just completed his military service. He was laid to rest in Moshav Yesodot, in the Nahal Sorek region.
Eulogizing her son Harel, Yael Masoud said, “Our beautiful Haralush [“little Harel”]. I can’t understand that you are not here with us. How can we talk about you in the past tense? You have only just been released from the army, from the most rigid framework, and you have only blossomed. Now that you have finally started to live, to fulfill your dream and to settle the land you loved—now she is taking you to the depths of her land.”
The 63-year-old Fairman was buried in Eli. Those who knew him said he was “a man above and beyond, full of light and goodness. A man who loves to help everyone, unimaginable.”
Mordoff, 17, was buried in Shiloh. He leaves behind parents and seven siblings. His family said at the funeral that Mordoff was “a smiling boy, energetic and loved by all his friends. He was always involved in the sacred, helping others, smiling and strengthening the weak.”
The four Israelis were killed, and four others wounded, when two masked Palestinian terrorists arrived at a gas station near the community of Eli, in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem, and fired on diners at an eatery there. Morel Nikkel, a security guard from Eli, returned fire, killing one of the terrorists. The second was killed several hours later in a shootout with security forces in the city of Tubas.
Hamas claimed the two terrorists, Muhannad Shehadeh and Khaled Mustafa Sabah, as members. The Israel Defense Forces has begun mapping out and measuring their homes for demolition, though their families are expected to file a legal appeal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday agreed on the immediate advancement of planning for approximately 1,000 new residential units in Eli.
“Our answer to terrorism is to strike at it forcefully and build up our country,” Netanyahu said.