Dvir Sorek
Dvir SorekCourtesy of the family

Esther Shlezinger, an 81-year-old Holocaust survivor now living in the Gush Etzion town of Efrat and the grandmother of the IDF soldier murdered in last week’s stabbing attack, mourned her grandson’s death in a Yediot Ahronot interview Monday, and lamented the fact that two of his killers were captured alive.

Last Wednesday night, 18-year-old Dvir Sorek, an IDF soldier and hesder yeshiva student, was stabbed to death near his yeshiva in Gush Etzion. His remains were found Thursday morning.

Shlezinger recalled the phone conversation with her son, Yoav Sorek, Dvir’s father, on the night Dvir went missing.

“He asked me ‘Mom, is Dvir with you?’. Immediately my whole world went dark. Dvir was a responsible boy, and I knew that if the yeshiva’s dean had called Yoav, something terrible must have happened. During the night, I was kept updated regarding the searches.”

“After they found his body, Yoav came and knocked at my door. I opened the door, and my son said to me ‘Mom, Dvir is no more.’ At that moment I told myself that we had all lost [something] with Dvir’s passing.”

While Shlezinger praised the Israeli security forces responsible for the capture of two terrorists from the cell suspected in Dvir’s murder, she emphasized that she would have preferred the terrorists to have been killed rather than apprehended.

“I would have been happier if they wouldn’t have been captured alive, but rather killed, because unfortunately this capture is only temporary. They could, God-forbid, eventually be freed. One of my greatest fears that night” when Dvir was reported missing, “was that he might have been kidnapped. But I don’t want to talk about the murderers. It is important that Dvir’s memory remains with us.”