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On Thursday evening, the yeshiva students – mostly teenagers – had returned from prayers at the Western Wall. They were about to begin a party celebrating the beginning of the month of Adar – a month of joy marked by the Purim holiday. Many of the students had gathered in the yeshiva library before the party when the terrorist opened fire.
"God picks the most beautiful flowers for his garden," said the mother of 16-year-old Avraham David Mozes, killed in the attack. The terrorist, a resident of East Jerusalem, was killed by an IDF officer. The ‘Galilee Freedom Brigades’ – an Israeli-Arab group – has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Mercaz Harav Yeshiva is considered the leading national-religious yeshiva in Israel, with hundreds of elite students. Among its thousands of graduates are leading public figures including senior rabbis and IDF officers. It was founded in 1924 by mandatory Palestine’s first chief rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook. Hamas "blesses the Jerusalem operation."
Gaza’s streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary in which eight people were killed. In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving. Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby. Hamas issued a statement saying the group "blesses the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last." Reactions Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni: "The murderous rampage against students marking a religious event exemplifies all too well the heinous extremism of the fundamentalist foundations Palestinian terrorism is built upon. Israel will never allow terrorism to achieve its goals. Despicable attacks such as this must strengthen the free world’s understanding of the terrorist threat, in the face of which we must stand resolute and without compromise. Israel expects the nations of the world to support it in its battle against the murderers of students, women and children."
US President George Bush: "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation." US Secy of State Condoleezza Rice: "The United States condemns tonight’s act of terror and depravity. This barbarous act has no place among civilized peoples and shocks the conscience of all peace loving nations. There is no cause that could ever justify this action." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a condemnation of the "savage attack" and decried the "deliberate killing and injuring of civilians." The Secretary-General said he was deeply concerned at the potential for continued acts of violence and terrorism to undermine the political process. The victims:
Terror
Attack in Jerusalem
Witnesses say the terrorist entered the library of the Merkaz Harav seminary and opened fire on about 80 people in the room who were preparing for an upcoming Jewish religious holiday. Panicked students began jumping out of windows and the shooting continued for several minutes. Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld says the attacker was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and was killed on the scene. "What I can say is that the attacker entered the main gate of the school, went through the entrance of the schools, opened fire on a number of students and then was himself shot and killed at the entrance to the library," said Rosenfeld. Police have identified the terrorist as a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem. Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack. However, a statement from the ruling Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip praised the attack, saying it would not be the last. A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry says the attack was designed to derail peace talks, but he says the talks will continue. In Washington, the U.S. State Department condemned the attack as an "act of terror" and extended condolences to the victims’ families. Mark Regev a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says terrorist attacks like the one Thursday evening do not help the peace process. "As much as my country and my government wants to move forward in peace with Palestinians, Hamas and the other extremists are the greatest single problem in moving forward in peace," said Regev. "There cannot be a peace process as long as people do not stand up and oppose this sort of extremism, hatred and bloodshed." At Least 8 Israelis Killed, Dozens Injured in Palestinian Shooting Attack at Yeshivat Harav Center in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem
Dozens of ambulances collected the casualties as heavy police forces and special military units arrived on the scene and scoured the four-story building in case more terrorists were lurking there. All the roads leading in and out of Jerusalem were blocked amid a manhunt for the killer’s confederates. The Lebanese Hizballah’s TV station interrupted broadcasts to name the perpetrators of the attack as the “Imad Mughniyeh Liberators of Galilee.” |
