Two out of four Israelis who were murdered in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in Beersheva on Tuesday were laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon.
The victims have been named as Laura Yitzhak, 43, a mother of three; Doris Yahbas, 49, from Moshav Gilat, also a mother of three; Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a father of four; and Menahem Yehezkel, 67, a brother to four.
Yahbas’s nephew, Yisrael Ozan, was a member of one of the first teams of paramedics who scrambled to the scene of the attack. “I went to treat a wounded woman who was unconscious, and while I was working I saw that she was my aunt—my mom’s sister. She was showing no signs of life, and we were forced to declare her dead. I was shocked, but I had to keep functioning,” he said on Tuesday.
Yehezkel left behind a sister and three brothers. Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, who attended his funeral, said: “Menahem Yehezkel went for a walk and was stabbed by a vile killed who killed four people mercilessly and indiscriminately. Four people who went out on their daily errands and were murdered, just because they were Jews.”
Shasha-Biton also thanked the two Israeli civilians who neutralized the terrorist.
Yitzhak’s funeral, held in Beersheva, was attended by Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai.
“There is no limit to the pain you feel. … Your pain is our pain, and we are here by your side and with you. Laura … was murdered in her city. She enjoyed spending time with her husband and was proud of her family. Her daughters and family meant everything to her. Laura loved life and celebrated it until it was taken from her,” he said.
Crying at their mother’s funeral, Yitzhak’s daughters screamed: “Mom, come back to us!”
Kravitzky, a Chabad rabbi, will also be laid to rest in Beersheva. He has been described by loved ones as fully committed to his community, running a local soup kitchen for more than a decade.
According to Chabad. org, “he was the gentlest of souls whose entire life was about giving to others,” said Rabbi Sholom Duchman, director of Colel Chabad—Israel’s longest-running charity ad the organization that oversaw the soup kitchen.
The attack occurred at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. An Israeli-Arab man from the Bedouin town of Houra—later identified as Muhammad Abu Al-Kiyan, 34, a known supporter of ISIS who served jail time in Israel—stabbed Yitzhak to death at a gas station. He then got into his car and drove to a nearby shopping center, where he ran down Kravitsky, who was riding a bicycle. Then he headed toward the shops and stabbed Yahbas and Yehezkel to death. He also stabbed two more women, who remain hospitalized in critical condition.
The Israel Police has raised the level of alert nationwide out of concern of a possible escalation of violence as the Ramadan holiday approaches. This year, it coincides with the one-year anniversary of the violent riots that erupted in mixed cities during the 11-day conflict with Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last May.