Residents of the Samaria town of Avnei Hefetz and friends of Shaul and Rachel Nir from around the country gathered Thursday night to light Hanukkah candles at the site of the terror attack the night before, in which the couple was shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting as they left town.
Shaul was seriously wounded and Rachel lightly wounded in the attack, with a ten shekel coin miraculously stopping one of the bullets and preventing more serious wounds.
The theme of the candle-lighting ceremony was “lighting the intersection,” referring to the site at the Avnei Hefetz junction where Palestinian Arab attackers opened fire on the Nirs. Participating in the event were MKs Miki Zohar and Betzalel Smotrich, Avnei Hefez Council chairman Shuly Langerman, and Einav chairman Nisim Ben-Alush.
Samaria Council Chairman Yossi Dagan said that the purpose of the event “was to make clear that we are nor prepared to be ducks lined up as targets. There is a limit to this lawlessness. We will stand firm and not allow this road to be reopened for Palestinians.”
Speaking earlier, Dagan said that its was “inconceivable that six months, we begged [the authorities] not to open the access road to Avnei Hefetz to Palestinian traffic."
"It pains me that this is how decisions are made," Dagan bemoaned. "The same thing happened in the case of the Henkin family. On the same road [they were killed] we warned it not be opened [to Arab traffic], and only after the children lost their parents, was the road blocked to [Palestinian] traffic - until the blood dried.”
Speaking at the event, Dagan said that “after the attack I expected to get a phone call from the Prime Minister that we are building 2,000 homes in Avnei Hefetz. That's how we responded to these attacks in the past and that is how we should respond to them now. We must act with determination against terrorist, but it's clear that the true answer to terrorism is mass building.”
MK Miki Zohar said at the event that “settlement in Samaria is a strategic resource for Israel. I tip my hat to the residents of these places who deal with this day by day, hour by hour.”