Health Minister Ya'akov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) visited one of the victims wounded in Thursday's stabbing attack at the Panorama building in southern Tel Aviv in the hours after the attack, in a visit to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital.
"This is a hard day of terror which once again hurt innocent Jews," Litzman stated. "We have seen, unfortunately, that synagogues have become the target of murderous terrorism."
Litzman noted that he would advocate for state-sponsored security in synagogues, making clear he will raise the issue during the next Cabinet meeting.
"I call on the prime minister to allocate resources to secure prayer sessions in synagogues in Israel," he said. "Just like it guards educational institutions, the government must secure synagogues and even partially finance the costs of security for them nationwide."
Litzman is the second politician to advocate for synagogue security since the terror wave began at the start of October. Last month, Religious Affairs Minister David Azoulay (Shas) wrote a letter to Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) demanding special attention be given to synagogue security risks, noting their potential to become terror targets.
In that letter, Azoulay made a number of specific suggestions - including, among others, adding or reinforcing patrols, issuing bulletins to the those serving as gabay (administrators) of synagogues regarding special security arrangements, and requesting that each synagogue include at least one person with a weapons license.
A 36-year-old Palestinian worker from Dura, outside of Hevron, stabbed to death two Jews at prayer in the attack Thursday. He worked at a nearby restaurant.