A lone terrorist entered a prominent Jerusalem Yeshiva this evening at dinner time and started shooting at random. Eight students are dead and at least 30 are injured, several of them seriously.
The gunman was an Arab resident of East Jerusalem.  About 80 students were in the dining hall when the terrorist entered and opened fire.  He reportedly was wearing a suicide vest but failed to detonate it before he was killed.

40 year old Yitzchak Dadon, a part time yeshiva student, shot the terrorist with his own weapon.  David Shapira, a graduate of the yeshiva and officer in the paratroopers, heard the noise from his nearby home, ran to the yeshiva and "finished the terrorist off."

When asked by a Channel 2 TV reporter what kind of weapon the Palestinian terrorist had, Dadon said, "A kalachnilov," and turning to the camera, angrily added, "The Kalachnikov [rifle] that you gave him, President Peres."

Had the terrorist exploded himself, we don't even want to think of how many more would have been killed.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Palestinians are pouring into the streets, dancing and celebrating the "death of the Zionist enemy", passing out sweets and cakes.

Sickening.

 
WHY THIS YESHIVA?

The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood.

The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, is at the heart of the national-religious movement in Israel which holds strongly to the biblical right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

Most of the students at the seminary are high school age.
 
We pray for the families who have lost their sons; we pray for the full recovery for the injured; we grieve and we weep at the loss of young, promising students who were devoted to Hashem, to his Torah and to the land of Israel.

May Hashem have mercy on us all!

LEAH