Family and friends of Eli and Natali Mizrahi, who were killed in a shooting attack in Jerusalem, mourn during their funeral in Bet Shemesh, jan. 28, 2023. (Amir Levy\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A Palestinian gunman gunned down Eli and Natali Mizrahi on Friday night. Now the couple was in a morgue awaiting burial. There are no Jewish funerals on Shabbat. They would be buried after nightfall.<\/p>\n
The gunman killed seven people Friday night, in the worst terrorist attack in Jerusalem in over a decade.<\/p>\n
A day earlier, Israeli troops killed nine people, including two civilians, in a raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin that Israeli officials said was aimed at preempting a major terrorist attack; a 10th died later. A day later, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot and wounded an Israeli father and son outside Jerusalem\u2019s Old City walls amid a scattering of further incidents.<\/p>\n
Jerusalem, the country, the region are on edge. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced new measures aimed at curbing the violence, targeting families of terrorists. Police arrested 42 people in connection with the Neve Yaakov attack. Bill Burns, the CIA boss, is on his way to Israel to consult with Netanyahu about how to keep the region from blowing up.<\/p>\n
On Friday night, around 8 p.m., in the middle of the Sabbath evening meal, Eli Mizrahi, 48, ran downstairs as soon as he heard the gunfire. His father, Shimon, asked him not to go, the Times of Israel reported. Eli\u2019s wife of two years, Natali, 45, followed her husband.<\/p>\n
Eli Mizrahi spoke to the gunman, who shot him and Natali dead.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Neve Yaakov residents stood in groups on the street in the long shadows cast by the winter sun, gossiping, trying to piece together details from second hand reports; Shabbat forbade them from turning on the radio or TV or checking their phones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat here in the living room and suddenly I heard shooting,\u201d said Sara Gablayev, 76, who lives on the ground floor, below the Mizrahis. \u201cI ran to the window and saw two people falling. Then I saw some running and I shouted, \u2018What happened?\u2019 He said two more people were killed down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Friday evening, as Shabbat services were ending. Kheiri Al-Qam, 21, drove his car down Neve Yaakov Boulevard, shooting civilians, seemingly aiming at whomever he could reach.<\/p>\n
He murdered the Mizrahis. He murdered Rafael Ben Eliahu, 56, who worked for the post office, and who left a widow and three children. He murdered Asher Natan, who was 14. He murdered Shaul Hai, 68, a sexton at one synagogue who was entering another to attend a Torah lesson. He murdered Irina Korlova, a Ukrainian caregiving worker. He murdered Ilya Sosansky, 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe terrorist killed three people at the entrance to the synagogue and left three others with various injuries,\u201d said Chanoch Reem, a volunteer first responder with United Hatzalah who lives next to the synagogue Hai was entering and who rushed to the scene when he heard the commotion. \u201cHe then drove away while continuing to shoot passersby.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a release, United Hatzalah quoted another of its first responders, Yosef Deshet, who was in the synagogue when Al-Qam opened fire. \u201cWhen I heard the gunshots begin I took cover on the floor under a table with my son,\u201d he said. \u201cImmediately after the shooting ended, I ran to my house nearby to bring my son back to safety and to grab my medical trauma kit and bulletproof vest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al-Qam drove his car to a junction that connects roads to Neve Yaakov and Bet Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood. There, he exchanged fire with Israeli troops, and was killed.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, in Ras al-Amud, an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood seven miles south of Neve Yaakov, Israeli troops surrounded the six-story building where Al-Qam lived with his extended family. Before dawn, troops bound men and boys to one another by the wrists and led them out. Neighborhood Palestinian youths grouped together on a nearby stairway watched the soldiers.<\/p>\n
One of the young Palestinian men watching the troops said they were in wait-and-see mode.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they\u2019ll demolish the house. Maybe it will be a surprise,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy government now. Any decision is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s government, just weeks old, is the most right-wing in Israel\u2019s history. His public security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was weaned on the teachings of Meir Kahane, the racist rabbi assassinated in 1990, and has called for loosening rules of engagement with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Ben-Gvir the lawyer represented Jewish Israelis who were accused of violence against Palestinians. In a detail that underscored the entwined fates of the two neighborhoods, one of those whose innocence he helped obtain was Haim Perlman, arrested in 2010 on suspicion of having murdered another Kheiri Al-Qam \u2014 the Neve Yaakov attacker\u2019s grandfather. Perlman was never charged.<\/p>\n
Ben-Gvir the provocateur with a criminal record made his name acts aimed at forcing the government rightward, accusing it of weakness. On Friday night Ben-Gvir the government minister traveled to Neve Yaakov, and now the anger, the pushback, the pleas to do something, anything were aimed at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s on your watch!\u201d said one man, caught on video shouting at Ben-Gvir. \u201cLet\u2019s see what you do now!\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, Saturday, the residents chattered with one another on Neve Yaakov Boulevard trying to make sense of the night before. Neve Yaakov, a neighborhood built after Israel captured eastern Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, is surrounded by Palestinian neighborhoods and the separation wall between Jerusalem looms near.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live down the street so we don\u2019t know what happened,\u201d said Miriam Reuven, who was standing on a traffic island with her three granddaughters. \u201cWe came to get more information. I don\u2019t feel safe here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shimon Yisrael points to where a gunman fired a bullet through his window in the neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem, Jan. 28, 2023. (Orly Halpern)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Some residents shooed away reporters: It was Shabbat, after all. Shimon Yisrael sought them out. He was showing a French camera crew the bullet in his ground-floor window.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came with a pistol to my face,\u201d he said of Al-Qam. \u201cI was outside, he wanted to shoot me and I went into the house and he shot at the window. He wanted to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He knows what to do with Al-Qam\u2019s family, which is likely to receive benefits that the Palestinian Authority gives to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned over their role in attacking Israelis. \u201cDestroy their house,\u201d Yisrael said. \u201cDeport the whole family to Syria, to ISIS, they\u2019ll slaughter them over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Ras Al Amud, the youths outside Al-Qam\u2019s building said his father, Musa, is at prayers at a mosque a few doors down.<\/p>\n
At the mosque, men were gathered in a courtyard, drinking the bitter coffee typically served at funerals. Except there is no funeral. Israeli authorities are holding Khairi Al-Qam\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
Musa Al-Qam came out of the mosque to meet a reporter in the courtyard. His voice was toneless.<\/p>\n
Musa Al-Qam whose son, Khairi, murdered seven Israelis and was killed, mourns in a mosque in Jerusalem, Jan. 28, 2023. (Orly Halpern)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cToday is a wedding. It\u2019s a celebration,\u201d he said of his son\u2019s death. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to cry. Everything that happens is from God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Men hugged him. He stiffened.<\/p>\n
His hands are calloused. He explained that he has worked for years in construction. He has eight children, four boys and four girls. The youngest are twins, he said, and for the first time, he smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe soldiers told me my son is a fighter,\u201d he said. \u201cMy son is not from any movement. I don\u2019t know what happened to his mind. The occupation kills boys before they are men.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few hours later, Netanyahu\u2019s office issued a release: The security cabinet had ordered his apartment building sealed ahead of its destruction.<\/p>\n
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