An 18-year-old Jewish pioneer was murdered in a terror attack in Samaria this past Shabbat, in an attack that has shaken the settlement community and drawn condemnations from Israeli government officials.
Yehuda Shmuel Sherman HY”D of Elon Moreh was killed while conducting a security patrol near the Shuva Yisrael farm outside of Homesh, in the heart of the biblical region of Samaria. A Palestinian vehicle traveling from the nearby village of Beit Amarin rammed the off-road vehicle in which Sherman and his brother were riding. Sherman was killed, while his brother Daniel was wounded. The terrorist fled the scene.
Security forces, including IDF troops, police, and forensic investigators, were dispatched to the area. In a formal statement, the IDF Spokesperson confirmed: “One Israeli citizen was killed, two additional Israelis were wounded to varying degrees, and one Palestinian was wounded,” adding that the incident was under investigation.
A Son of the Heartland
Yehuda Shmuel was not just passing through Samaria — he was building his life there. A young man devoted to the pioneering ideal of settling the biblical heartland of the Jewish people, he was part of a tight-knit community of families working to establish and protect Jewish presence on the hills where Abraham walked, where Joshua led the Israelites, and where the Tabernacle stood at Shiloh for over 350 years.
Israel365 Action founder Rabbi Tuly Weisz, who has worked closely with Yehuda Shmuel’s father, Yehoshua Sherman, in advocacy for Judea and Samaria, issued a statement mourning the loss.
“It is with a broken heart that Israel365 Action mourns the murder of Yehuda Shmuel Sherman HY”D,” Rabbi Weisz said. “Yehuda Shmuel was not simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was exactly where a proud young Jew should be — on the land of his ancestors, guarding it with courage and conviction.”
Israeli Leaders Respond
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose Religious Zionist party counts Yehoshua and Sima Sherman among its activists, was among the first to respond. “I share from the depths of my heart in the grief of my friends and partners of many years, Yehoshua and Sima Sherman and their family, over the murder of their son,” Smotrich said, invoking the biblical phrase, “In your blood, live!” and pledging to continue building throughout Eretz Yisrael.
MK Limor Son Har-Melech also responded forcefully: “This was not an accident — it was a deliberate vehicular terror attack against Jews. Jewish blood is not ownerless.”
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan rushed to the scene and questioned the wounded brother alongside security officials. “We stand before a murderous and barbaric enemy whose goal is to murder Jews and drive them from their land,” Dagan said. “We will never break. We will only grow stronger and build even more in northern Samaria.”
Yesha Council chairman Israel Ganz added: “We strengthen the pioneering farm activists who devote their bodies and souls to the soil of our land with determination and courage. We will not be deterred.”
The Biblical Heartland Under Fire
Homesh and the surrounding hills of northern Samaria sit at the geographic and spiritual center of the Jewish people’s ancient homeland. Any reader of the Tanach knows that the region the world calls the “West Bank” is in fact the cradle of Jewish civilization — the land of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the Judges, and the Kings of Israel.
The murder of Yehuda Shmuel Sherman is a sobering reminder that the Jewish return to this land comes at a price — and that the pioneering families building their homes on these ancient hills do so with extraordinary courage.
Israel365 Action has called on Jews and supporters of Israel worldwide to stand with the Sherman family. Prayers are requested for the recovery of Daniel Binyamin ben Sima Leah.
