Thousands attended the funeral on Sunday of Yosef Salomon, 70, and his children Chaya Salomon, 46, and Elad Salomon, 36, who were killed by a Palestinian terrorist in the West Bank on Friday. The terrorist—19-year-old Omar al-Abed—entered Yosef’s home in Halamish and attacked the family as they celebrated the birth of a new grandchild.

The assailant was incapacitated by an off-duty soldier, who shot him with a single bullet to the stomach. Al-Abed was then taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. The soldier’s mother, Rachel Maoz, said her son made sure that there would not be another incident there like that of Elor Azaria. “Of course, there are all sorts of stupid people who say, ‘why didn’t you finish him off?’… We don’t do things like that. We are not murderers. We just defend.”

Yosef’s wife Tova, 68, was also seriously wounded in the attack, but was released from hospital to be able to join the mourners at the funeral.

In initial questioning, al-Abed said he bought the knife two days before the stabbing, and wanted to commit a terror attack because of the tensions surrounding the Temple Mount since July 14th, when three Israeli Arabs shot to death two Israeli police officers guarding the complex.

Elad Salomon’s wife, Michal, told Israeli Channel 2 that her husband fought back against the terrorist during Friday’s attack in order to protect their children—aged five, nine, eleven, and one-year-old twins.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was “heartbreaking” and “cruel terrorism, the product of a vast, unchecked hatred toward Jews.”

President Reuven Rivlin said that “The acts of terror, the violence on and off the mountain so holy to Jews and Arabs, must be condemned and must be stopped.”

(via BICOM)

[Photo: BICOM]