During an emotional condolence call at a Jerusalem hospital, Netanyahu offered words of comfort to Rina Shnerb’s parents and announced the name of a new neighborhood in her honor.
By World Israel News Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara visited the bereaved parents of Rina Shnerb on Monday night at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, where her father and brother are still recovering from injuries sustained in the terror attack near Dolev, in Samaria, which claimed the teenage girl’s life.
In the wake of the attack, Netanyahu approved 300 new housing units in Dolev, which will constitute the new Mitzpe Rina section of the Jewish town in Samaria.
“At the parents’ request, we decided to name the new neighborhood in Dolev ‘Mitzpe Rina,'” Netanyahu tweeted after the visit.
Commitments to build new towns and neighborhoods are frequently announced after deadly terror attacks, signaling Israel’s resolve to continue building Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
“The people of Israel will always remember her,” Netanyahu tweeted on Monday evening.
The deadly attack on Friday morning was carried out by Palestinian terrorists who placed an improvised bomb on a hiking trial leading to a popular spring, which in fact was named after the victim of a previous Palestinian terror attack, Dani Gonen.
Rina was killed by the blast, which also injured her 19-year-old brother Dvir and her father Eitan, who serves as the rabbi of Lod, in central Israel.
“We will deepen our roots and strike our enemies,” Netanyahu declared. “We will continue to strengthen and develop the settlements.”
Earlier in the day on Monday, Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman tweeted that Israeli security forces apprehended the terrorists who killed Rina , but later removed the post. No further announcement regarding arrests was made by government officials.
Liberman’s deleted tweet followed statements by Palestinian sources that Israeli security forces had captured the terrorists.
During the Netanyahus’ hospital visit on Monday, which occurred as part of the seven-day “shiva” mourning period, Rabbi Shnerb shared a cause dear to his heart: the Shabbat Table Project. For 15 years, the rabbi and others in Lod have distributed Sabbath and holiday meals to the community’s needy residents as well as hosting them.