Hebron terror attack: ‘I watched my father die’

Ronen Hanania’s son recounts watching his father die after being shot in a brutal terror attack, which left 5 others wounded.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The son of an Israeli man killed in a terrorist attack on Saturday recounted the harrowing experience of watching his father die in front of him during an interview with Hebrew language Channel 12 News on Sunday morning.

Muhammed Kamel al-Jabari was killed by security forces during the attack, which left 1 man dead and 5 wounded, including a Palestinian shopkeeper, on Saturday evening.

In the unprovoked attack, al-Jabari – whom Arabic language media reported had terminal cancer and a life expectancy of just a few weeks – opened fire on two Jewish men as they left a Palestinian-owned local grocery store, near the entrance to Kiryat Arba, a suburb of Hebron.

Ronen Hanania, 50, was fatally shot. His son, 19, who was also wounded, survived the attack.

“We were shot at – my father was hit in the head, I watched him die,” said Hanania’s son, who did not give his first name to the media.

“I knew my father was dying. He was not functioning. He was breathing, he had a pulse but he wasn’t here mentally. I don’t know where the bullet came from, but there was no chance of him surviving. I saw my father, I watched him in his last moments.”

He said that it took nearly 15 minutes for emergency services to arrive at the scene, so he ran to a nearby grocery store for help.

He said that he was aided by local Palestinians. “Arabs bandaged my hand there,” he said. “One took my sweater and put a tourniquet on me. Then they told us that everything was fine, we could go out, there is a medic.”

However, the terrorist opened fire once again, shooting one of the paramedics.

The medic is currently in a medically-induced coma in a Jerusalem hospital but is expected to survive.

An off-duty IDF soldier and local security guard then neutralized the terrorist by “running him over [with a car] and then shooting him,” Hanania’s son said.

Early Sunday morning, the terrorist’s family home in Hebron was measured by the IDF, a step which typically occurs days before a demolition.

According to Hebrew language media reports, al-Jabari’s brother Wa’al was serving a life sentence for terrorism in an Israeli prison, but released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. He was deported to the Gaza Strip.