Securing Safety and Security in Israel

"This is a complex, combined attack in two areas, which appears to be the result of an organized infrastructure, and not [a] spontaneous act as we have come to know in recent years."

Omer Bar Lev, Israeli public security minister

"A boy who fought hard, set out on a good path despite not having an easy life. I can testify that nobody felt anger with this child."

"He didn't know what anger was. He would help everyone in the street and was loved by mankind."

"I didn't think I would be eulogizing another student from the same class."

Rabbi Naftali Schreiber

"Heartbroken to confirm that a  young Canadian lost his life in this morning's reprehensible terror attack in Jerusalem."

"Our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to others wounded in this attack. Canada continues to condemn all forms of terror."

Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Lisa Stadelbauer

The explosions happened at two busy areas of Jerusalem as people were heading to work  EPA

"[Aryeh Schupak] was a boy who never wronged anyone in the world, and he was murdered simply because he was Jewish."   

"[Security forces will] find these heinous terrorists, those behind them and those who provided them with weapons." 

"I want to say to the citizens of Israel: We will find them. They can run, they can hide - it won't help them; the security forces will reach them. If they resist, they will be eliminated."

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid 

Nowhere else in the world do citizens of a country go about their daily lives knowing that there but for the grace of god they would be spared or dead at some unforeseen moment. In Israel, death stalks the wary and the unwary alike, whether by bombs, knifings, car-rammings, stoning, or gunfire, all at the hands of Arab Palestinians who have been indoctrinated by their leaders to hate Jews and pledge their own lives to the destruction of Israel and the death of its Jewish citizens.

This time, a double bombing, a half-hour apart, at two targeted public bus stops. A total of seventeen people were wounded, some seriously, and one 15-year-old boy on his way to seminary classes, died. He had felt ill that morning, but decided he would go to school regardless. So slender a hairsbreadth of chance for fate to determine who will live and who will die."Only one thing comes to mind, what's important, what's not. Appreciating every minute with a child and with the family", said his stricken father.

 

Aryeh Schupak, 15, was killed while he was heading to a Jewish seminary   Reuters

 

The family, originally from Russia, emigrated to Israel when Aryeh was a child; they held dual Israeli-Canadian citizenship. The deadly bombing took place in the Har Nof neighbourhood at 7 a.m. at the bus stop; a second detonated at 7:30 a.m. at Ramot Junction, injuring three other people. Hidden in bags, the explosive devices, packed with nails. were detonated remotely by mobile phone.

The dual attacks, while universally condemned by the UN, the EU, the US and elsewhere, were celebrated in Gaza, with a Hamas spokesman praising the explosions, although not claiming responsibility for the coup. The blasts, claimed Abdel-Latif Al-Qanona, were linked to "crimes conducted by the Occupation and the settlers". The crime being the very existence of Israel, which Hamas's charter promises to eliminate.

Months of rising tension have wracked the area since Israel launched a crackdown, responding to deadly attacks by Palestinians in Israeli cities. Up to the two bombs being set off, Israeli police have faced a string of stabbings, shootings and car rammings by Palestinians, placing the country on high alert. In response to the situation, the Israeli military conducted almost nightly raids in the West Bank, focusing in particular around Jenin where some of the assailants have originated.

Jenin is also where 20 to 30 Palestinian terrorists stormed a  hospital a day ago where an injured Israeli Druze teenage high schooler was being treated after a car accident. He was on life support during attempts to treat his severe injuries. His father was standing outside the door to his room, when the assailants stormed through, taking his son off life support, and kidnapping 17-year-old Tiran Fero. The Druze community rose up, demanding the return of his body and a funeral was held, thousands in attendance.

Mourners hold up a picture of Druze teenager Tiran Fero at his funeral in Daliyat al-Karmel, northern Israel, November 24, 2022. (Shir Torem/Flash90)