On Saturday, eight-year-old Asher Menahem Paley died from wounds sustained on Friday afternoon when a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into a crowded bus stop in the Ramot section of Jerusalem. His brother, six-year-old Yaakov Yisrael Paley, died at the scene of the attack. Their brother, Moshie, age ten, was lightly wounded in the attack and released from Hadassah Medical Center over the weekend. The boys’ father, 42, remains hospitalized in moderate condition.
The children were buried on Friday afternoon and Saturday night in Jerusalem.
Alter Shlomo Lederman, a 20-year-old yeshiva student who had gotten married two months ago, was also killed in the attack. He and his wife were on their way to spend Shabbat with his parents. Lederman was buried on Friday before Shabbat.
Two men in their 20s are still hospitalized in serious condition.
The terrorist was an Israeli citizen and a resident of the Issawiya neighborhood of Jerusalem. Eyewitnesses said he accelerated into the group of Israelis waiting at the bus stop. He was shot and killed by a police officer who happened to be at the scene.
Many Palestinians went to the streets to celebrate the murders, including children in Gaza who handed out cake and candies.
Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, released a statement condemning the attack.
“The deliberate targeting of innocent civilians is repugnant and unconscionable. We stand firmly with Israel in the face of this attack,” he said.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain released statements “strongly” condemning the attack. The UAE’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “condolences to the Israeli government and its people and its sympathy to the families of the victims of this heinous crime, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.” The UAE government statement referred to “criminal act” and said that Abu Dhabi rejected “all forms of violence and terrorism aimed at undermining security and stability in contravention of human values and principles.”
The Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the “terrorist attack in Jerusalem,” and called for restraint from both sides “to create an atmosphere suitable for renewing the peace process between the Israeli and Palestinian people.”
On Sunday morning, the IDF sealed the house of the terrorist’s parents.
