“My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Mr. Schwartz”, Blumenthal said.
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It is with a broken heart that we share with you the very sad news that Ezra Schwartz, z ” l, a Maimonides School graduate of the Class of 2015, was murdered in a terrorist attack in Israel earlier today.
Three Israelis were killed and at least seven were wounded Thursday in stabbing and shooting attacks at a Tel Aviv synagogue and in the West Bank.
Authorities said three people, a USA national, an Israeli man and a Palestinian, were killed and around nine others wounded in the attack.
In the West Bank attack on Wednesday, near the Alon Shvut settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc, the yeshiva student killed was Ezra Schwartz, 18, of Sharon, Massachusetts.
Police said one Israeli was killed by gunfire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with security advisers Thursday to discuss the government’s next steps. But more visits in recent years by Jewish religious activists and ultra-nationalist Israeli politicians to the complex, where two biblical temples once stood, have done little to convince the Palestinians.
The attacks are part of wave of violence that erupted in mid-September over tensions surrounding a Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims.
The Israeli military said the attacker then intentionally rammed his vehicle into a group of pedestrians.
For the Palestinians, lack of 3G service has been a sore point and, they said, a symbol of how the Israeli occupation has held them back.
Israel has suspended entry permits for Palestinian labourers and will limit the movement of Palestinians in an area of the West Bank south of Jerusalem following two attacks on Thursday that left five people dead.
The five deaths in the attacks, reportedly carried out by Palestinians, are the most on a single day since the latest spate of terror attacks by Palestinians began last month.
At least 87 Palestinians were shot and injured by Israeli forces during clashes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday, medics told Ma’an.
“Whoever condemned the attacks in France must condemn the attacks in Israel”, he added.
“Once again, violence against innocent Israeli citizens perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists tragically took the life of 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz, a young man whose death leaves hopes and dreams unrealized and grieving family and friends in MA and CT, particularly the New Haven and Stamford areas”.
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Fearing a fully-fledged Palestinian uprising, Israel has beefed up security across the country by sending soldiers to patrol cities alongside thousands of police. Against this backdrop we cannot separate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from this global threat. It was the first of two attacks in Israel that day. The other three died in the West Bank.
