Beersheba terror victims laid to rest

Public Security Minister incenses mourners with gaffe about imprisoning dead terrorist.

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

The four victims of Tuesday night’s terror attack in Beersheba — Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, Laura Yitzhak, Doris Yahbas and Menachem Yechezkel — were laid to rest on Wednesday.

Muhammad Abu Al-Kiyan, from the Bedouin town of Hura, near Beersheba, ran over Kravitsky with his car, then drove to a nearby gas station where he stabbed Yitzhak. Al-Kiyan then drove to a shopping center where he stabbed three women, including Yahbas who died of her injuries. The other two women are in serious condition at Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center.

Al-Kiyan then drove off, collided with another car and stabbed Yechezkel.

Al-Kiyan was killed after attacking bus driver Arthur Chaimov, who confronted the terrorist. Chaimov and another bystander who has not been identified shot and killed Al-Kiyan.

At the funeral of Yahbas, Public Security Minister Omer Barlev incensed the mourners when he said, “We will not rest until this terrorist criminal arrives in prison and is judged with the full severity of the law.”

Barlev later told Channel 12 News that he wasn’t supposed to speak at the funeral, but when a microphone was thrust in front of him, he got confused and improvised, prompting funeral attendees to shout at him.

Barlev said he intended to say, “We will not rest until all the accomplices of this terrorist are caught and prosecuted and jailed.”

Cabinet ministers Nachman Shai and Yifat Shasha-Biton who attended the funerals, were also heckled with criticism about poor police service in the south.

Kravitsky, 50, was a Chabad emissary and father of four who ran a soup kitchen for the needy in Beersheba’s Nachal Beka neighborhood. Yahbas, 49, of Moshav Gilat, is survived by a husband and three children. Yitzhak, 43 is survived by a husband and three daughters ages 6-14. Yechezkel, 67, is survived by four siblings.

Police say Al-Kiyan, a 34-year-old elementary school teacher acted alone, but arrested two brothers who may have had advance knowledge of his plans. He and three other teachers had recently been released from prison for trying to join Islamic State in Syria and for propagandizing their students with radical Islamist ideology.

Police do not believe he was in contact with Islamic State.

Al-Kiyan’s family and the residents of Hura condemned the attack.