Arab Terror Attacks Kills Five Jews in Israel, including an American

18 year old Ezra Schwartz z”l of Sharon Massachusetts

While the World’s attention is riveted on the ISIS Massacres in Paris and battle in St. Denis that killed Belgian ‘mastermind;, Abdelhamid Abaaoud , five Jews, including a young American were killed in Tel Aviv and the Gush Etzion on Thursday.  This is the latest toll of Arab terrorism fomented by PA, Hamas incitement and the northern branch of the Islamic Movement inside Israel.  The latter was finally banned  for incitement of terror on order by Israeli PM Netanyahu after the jailing of its leader Sheik Rael Salah.  Moreover, in Marseilles earlier this week, an n Orthodox Jewish teacher was assaulted and knifed by three perpetrators shouting anti-Semitic obscenities.   It is illustrative of primal Arab and Muslim hatred of Jews, whether Israeli, French or American. The Tel Aviv incident that occurred during mid-day prayers was perpetrated by an Arab restaurant worker from Hebron.  The drive by shooting by Hamas gunmen in the Gush Etzion in Judea that killed three included Ezra Schwartz, an 18 year yeshiva student from Sharon, Massachusetts.

Ruthie Blum,  in an Algemeiner report provided details of the deadly Tel Aviv attack  from an eyewitness account filed with the Walla News Service, Eyewitnesses Recount Tel Aviv Stabbing Attack in Midst of Midday Prayers: People Were ‘Covered in Blood, Turning Blue’:

“A group of 15-20 of us was praying at a [Judaica] shop that serves as our daily makeshift synagogue,” Shimon recounted. “Suddenly, a man entered who was bleeding profusely. [Understanding he had just been stabbed by a terrorist and that the terrorist was behind him], we closed the doors. The terrorist tried with all his might to get in, but we didn’t let him.”

Shimon added, “He had a knife that looked like a sword. He was shouting in Arabic and tried to slaughter the men praying. We were lucky, because he had already managed to get half of his body inside the door, but we succeeded in keeping him out.”

One of the men caught in the middle of praying phoned a family member and described the bloodbath in real time, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

“I am at the scene of a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv,” he said. “We were praying minha [midday Jewish prayers] — because I was at a meeting in the Panorama building. A terrorist started stabbing people outside. We shut the door. He tried to get into our [makeshift] synagogue. There are people here who are seriously wounded. I photographed them. They might be dead. They’re blue. Covered in blood. We didn’t let the terrorist in. Everyone is praying and he’s yelling.”

Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived on the scene moments later had to declare one of the wounded men dead. Two other wounded people were evacuated by ambulance, and one of them died at the entrance to Ichilov Hospital.

Later in the evening, the names of the deceased – 51-year-old Reuven Aviram from Ramle, and 32-year-old Aharon Asayev from Holon – were released.

An interrogation of the terrorist by police began at the scene. He was revealed to be Raed Masalmeh, a 36-year-old father-of-five from the Hebron area with an Israeli work permit and a job at Samarkand, a Bukhari restaurant in Jaffa, within walking distance from the site of the attack.

Jns.org reported on the Palestinian terror attack in Gush Etzion that killed three, including 18 year old Ezra, Massachusetts Teen Ezra Schwartz Among Victims of Palestinian Terror Attack:

Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old American yeshiva student from Massachusetts, was among the three people killed in a Palestinian terror attack in Gush Etzion on Thursday.

Schwartz was riding in a van with five of his friends from Yeshiva Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh when a Palestinian terrorist driving in the opposite direction opened fire on the van and other cars stuck in traffic. The students were heading back to the yeshiva after handing out food to IDF soldiers.

“Ezra wanted nothing more than to help feed another person, to study Torah and his faith, and to live a life in peace. That opportunity was stolen from him and from us,” said a joint statement from Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Community Relations Council.

Two others—one Israeli and one Palestinian (not the terrorist)—were killed in Thursday’s attack in Gush Etzion, and seven were lightly wounded.

Two others—one Israeli and one Palestinian (not the terrorist)—were killed in Thursday’s attack in Gush Etzion, and seven were lightly wounded.

Raised in a family of five children, Schwartz grew up in the Boston suburb of Sharon and was a recent graduate of Maimonides Jewish Day School in Brookline, Mass. He had attended Camp Yavneh, a Jewish summer camp in Northwood, N.H. The camp said on Facebook that its community is “heartbroken to share the sad news that long time camper and counselor, Ezra Schwartz, was murdered in a terrorist attack in Israel today.”

Schwartz was also a participant in the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Masa Israel Journey program.

“Ezra came to Israel not only to study but also to be a part of the vibrant Israeli experience. This makes his death even more tragic,” said Jewish Agency Chairman of the Executive Natan Sharansky.

Prime Minister Netanyahu considers these deadly attacks in the “Knife Intifada” in Israel motivated  by the same ideology as  the ISIS Paris Massacres; radical Islam.  Something that President Obama nor Secretary of State Kerry could bring themselves to condemn.