Moshe Cohen, the brother of security guard Tzvika Cohen who was critically injured in an Arab ax attack in Ma'ale Adumim last Thursday night, has spoken of the family's double anguish at both the attack itself, as well as the publication of disturbing footage from the incident which has since gone viral.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, a visibly distraught Cohen said the entire family was going through "really, really tough times."
"This is the second terror attack that we've had in the family," he noted, referring to an attack in 2000 in which his other brother, Rahamim, was run over and stabbed 11 times by an Arab taxi driver.
"The whole family is here, as you can see; we're not doing well at all. Tzvika is in critical condition," he added, urging the public to pray for Tzvika ben Batya. "The family is all here praying, saying Psalms for Tzvika."
"A tragedy like this hurts. It's a feeling that crushes the whole house - the whole family, especially his wife and kids.
"He's a father to four kids, including twins, who are supposed to be celebrating the son's bar mitzvah in two weeks. But instead of celebrating a bar mitzvah, we're here praying for his survival," Cohen said.
Asked about the disturbing CCTV footage of the attack - which Arutz Sheva has chosen not to publish - Cohen described the family's horror at seeing the images, and questioned why no sensitivity was shown by whoever released it to the victim's young children.
"While the whole family is here, and the kids, someone, I don't know who, went and put out a video on social media.
"Today every kid is exposed to the internet, they all walk around with cell phones. Why does his 8-year-old son need to open his phone and see how [the terrorist] cut up his father with an ax?
"I don't know what heart the person had to do that."