“Even a chubby high-tech worker becomes something else when he realizes someone is coming to murder his family,” says father-of-seven Yair Maimon.
By World Israel News Staff
Yair Maimon, who shot and killed an armed terrorist who infiltrated into the Jewish community of Tekoa in Gush Etzion, spoke to Hebrew language media about the incident that occurred Sunday evening.
Maimon spoke to Mako News about the normal beginning to his night, sitting on his front patio and drinking tea with his wife. “We have seven kids, so this is our quiet time,” he said.
Suddenly, they spotted a man scaling a security fence around the perimeter of Tekoa, just meters away from their home.
“There’s a lot of adrenaline, and you only have a second to decide what to do,” he said. Instinct kicked in, and he ran to grab his M-16 and told his wife to call the local security patrol.
“Even a chubby high-tech worker,” he said, referring to himself, “becomes something else when he realizes that someone is coming to murder his family.”
Initially, Maimon demanded that the man, who was holding a knife, stop approaching his home.
“The [terrorist] shouted back at me ‘quiet!’ with a thick Arabic accent, and took another step towards me. So I arranged a date for him with 70 virgins.”
In Islamic tradition, a man who dies a martyr for an Islamic cause is said to be rewarded in paradise with 72 virgins.
While Maimon admitted he was surprised by the infiltration, he conceded that these types of events are part of the fabric of life in Judea and Samaria.
“We live here in a hostile environment, not in Switzerland,” he said. “I have been on standby for 13 years… I did military service.”
Maimon credited mandatory military service in Israel as a major factor for keeping society safe. Beyond “being teachers, high-tech workers, and lawyers, we are also military personnel, and that is present in all of us,” he said.
Maimon’s 13-year-old daughter filmed part of the incident, despite her father repeatedly telling her to move back.
“OMG terrorists came next to my house and my father shot one,” she wrote as the caption to the video, which she uploaded on social media.
In the video, Maimon can be seen approaching the dead terrorist, who is laying in his front yard, while continuing to aim an M-16 rifle at his body.
“Die!” Maimon’s daughter is heard saying in the background, before she begins to shriek and bursts into tears.
The terrorist’s three accomplices have not yet been apprehended.