Friedman rips PA leaders for praising stab attack

JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman accused unnamed Palestinian leaders of praising a terror attack that left an Israeli father of four dead.

Friedman’s tweet said: “20 years ago I gave an ambulance to Har Bracha hoping it would be used to deliver healthy babies. Instead, a man from Har Bracha was just murdered by a terrorist, leaving behind a wife and four children. Palestinian ‘leaders’ have praised the killer. Praying for the BenGal family.”

Several other countries’ ambassadors to Israel also used Twitter to condemn the attack.

Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, 29, of Har Bracha, was stabbed multiple times at a bus stop near the entrance to the Ariel settlement on Monday afternoon. He died on the way to the hospital. Hundreds attended his levaya.

The attacker, Ais Abed El-Hakim, 19, is an Israeli citizen and resident of Jaffa, the son of an Israeli mother from Haifa and a Palestinian father from Nablus.

“Itamar, my dear, we will continue settling the land and raising our family,” his wife, Miriam, said in her eulogy. Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein also eulogized the teacher and father.