At their funeral on Sunday, the father of two British-Israeli girls who were slain in a gunshot in the occupied West Bank held their bodies as mourners sobbed.
In their automobile in the Jordan Valley on Friday, Maia and Rina Dee, ages 20 and 15, were shot and killed by alleged Palestinian gunmen.
Following surgery, their mother Leah is in a critical condition.
The attack took place as Israeli-Palestinian tensions and violence were on the rise.
The prayer hall in a cemetery in the town of Kfar Etzion was full with people, and the low rhythmic melodies grew and moved with them.
Several of the mourners are teens, including some from Rina’s old school. The family gathered at the front, near a little podium, talking and holding each other for extended periods of stillness.
The bodies were brought out with a Star of David embroidered in gold and silver on each, one in black and one in blue.
Their father, Rabbi Leo Dee, a native of Radlett, England, loved them. His hands reached out to touch his final three children as he reclined, his face distorted in agony.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, attended the funeral.
The family relocated from London to Efrat nine years ago and now resides there.
After receiving gunfire, the automobile carrying the two girls’ mothers crashed. They were then re-fired upon at close range, according to Israeli media.
According to the Israeli national channel Kan, 22 bullet casings from what seemed to be a Kalashnikov assault rifle were discovered.
The victims were en route to Tiberias in the Galilee for a family vacation in one of the group’s three vehicles.
Roads in the region were blocked by Israeli military soldiers who claimed to have “initiated a pursuit of the terrorists” at fault.
In an interview with the BBC on Saturday night, Rabbi Dee praised his daughters for being attractive, intelligent, and well-liked. After their passing, he claimed he hasn’t been able to get any rest.
Every time I had dreams and woke up, the reality was worse, so I went back to sleep, he claimed. Nightmares that kept happening was how it happened.
He described Maia as “great, gorgeous, had a lot of friends, and was really motivated to do a second year of volunteering” in a high school where she was performing national service.
He described Rina as “beautiful, lively, extremely intelligent, top marks in every subject, really popular with friends, sporty… very responsible, she would take responsibility for many things.”
She would spend three hours alone on a Friday morning making sure the floor of the youth club was cleaned if other people didn’t show up, he claimed.
Rabbi Dee claimed he heard about the attack before realising his own family was a victim.
His wife and daughters did not pick up when he called them. Then he came saw an image of the attacked car online.
He added, “And we could just make out one of our suitcases in the back seat. Screaming and extreme panic were present.
Then he arrived at the scene by car. But, he was given his daughter’s ID card, which proved the worst when he was refused entrance.
According to Rabbi Dee, he and his three surviving kids “will get through this.”
Prior to the funerals, Rabbi Mordechai Ginsbury of the Hendon United Synagogue in north London claimed to have had a brief conversation with his close friend Rabbi Dee.
The BBC quoted him as saying, “Naturally, as are we all, [he] was horrified, shocked at how just in a few moments with an act of sheer evil and craziness – insanity – things can change around.”
“The loss of two beautiful girls, and his wife is now seriously ill in a Jerusalem hospital.
But despite his anguish, he remains determined to look for any good things and attempt to be a good father to his remaining children.
Rabbi Ginsbury continued by saying that people in Israel and from all around the world who had contacted Rabbi Dee made him feel “supported and enveloped by a blanket of warmth and love.”
In a tweet on Saturday that included the sisters’ names and identified the tragedy as a terror attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences to the family.
“No words can explain the depth of our shock and anguish at the heartbreaking news,” said Sir Ephraim Mirvis, head rabbi of the UK.
Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai ordered all Israelis with firearms licences to start carrying their weapons after the two sisters were shot.
Meanwhile on Friday, a suspected car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv left one Italian tourist dead and seven others injured, among them three Britons.
