The nation of Israel mourned Wednesday night with a broken-hearted young mother still lying critically injured in Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and her seriously wounded husband, whose tiny baby boy was named just before being laid to rest on the Mount of Olives.
Little Amiad Israel passed away from his multiple wounds earlier in the day, just three days after his mother was shot multiple times Sunday in a vicious terrorist attack outside the Jewish community of Ofra.
He was born at 30 weeks’ gestation in an emergency Caesarean section operation as doctors fought to save both his life and that of his mother after the attack.
Some 200 mourners gathered at the cemetery for the funeral overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, shielding the tiny body wrapped in a prayer shawl from the falling rain. Despite the pain, the baby’s grandfather spoke.
“You brought so much light,” said Refael Ish-Ran between sobs, “and with all the light that you brought, we will extinguish their darkness.”
Speaking at an event for foreign media Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Our heart is with Shira and Amichai after the passing of their four-day-old baby that doesn’t even have a name.” He called the terror cell behind the attack “despicable murderers, the most deviant criminals on earth,” adding “I hope there will soon be news on the matter.”
True to his word, within hours there was in fact news indeed: Israeli intelligence and military forces had tracked down the terrorist cell behind the attack and cornered them in a village near Ramallah. One of the terrorists was killed in a shootout with IDF special forces and at least four other suspects were arrested and handed over to intelligence personnel for interrogation.