Three
Students Shot As They Go On Mivtza Purim
In
a shocking tragedy that occurred this Purim near Chevron, seven Tmimim
who went out Purim night to deliver mishloach manos and to read
the Megilla at army bases were ambushed and fired upon by
terrorists. Three bachurim were injured in the attack, brothers
Shmuel and Menachem Mendel Offen, and Schneur Schneerson.
Shmuel
Offen, 17, who learns in Ts’fas, was airlifted to the hospital in
critical condition with a gunshot wound to his neck. His condition was
reported to be serious but improving, and he is able to talk. His
brother, Menachem Mendel, 18, who learns at Toras Emes in Yerushalayim,
underwent surgery to remove a bullet that had entered his shoulder and
exited close to his neck. Mendy was released on Purim, but still suffers
from pain. He has resumed his studies and is constantly surrounded by
friends. The father of the two boys is Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Offen, mashpia
in Chabad yeshivos in Yerushalayim and Tz’fas.
Schneur
Schneerson, of Kfar Chabad, was treated and released for superficial
wounds.
The
incident took place not far from the Tarkumaya roadblock, near the army
base serving as a “secure transit” checkpoint.
The
group was traveling in a white Peugot minibus, driven by Yoram Sharabi
of Kiryat Arba, on their regular mivtzaim route to the army bases
in Hebron. The terrorists were waiting in ambush in a vehicle on the
side of the highway. As the boys drove by, the terrorists opened fire
with automatic weapons.
A
bullet entered Shmuli’s neck and went out the other side, breaking two
fingers he had raised towards his head. Fortunately there was a
helicopter nearby, and he was airlifted, unconscious, to Hadasa Ein
Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim. He underwent two operations.
Shmuel
Karasik, a friend of the Offen boys, said doctors considered it a
miracle that the bullet had gone through one side of Shmuli Offen’s
neck and out the other without harming any vital organs on the way.
Adding to the wonder, at the very moment the shooting occurred, Shmulik
had been turning around in the vehicle to pass someone a Moshiach flag,
and thus his neck was turned to the side.
A
second miracle, Karasik reports, is the fact that the helicopter was
available nearby. “He had lost a lot of blood.”
Rabbi
Dovid Turkoff, mashpia of the Machon Alte Women’s Seminary in
Tsfas, says a further miracle occurred when one of the bachurim
in the front seat bent down to fix the loudspeaker and a bullet zipped
right over his head and out the front windshield.
Two
of Turkoff’s sons were initially slated to travel in Offen’s van but
at the last minute were changed to one of the other two cars also on mivtzaim
in the Hebron area.
“This
shows the boldness and chutzpa of the Arabs that this took place
100 to 150 yards from a major army installation,” said Rabbi Turkoff.
“And they just turned around and went into a Palestinian area, where
the army couldn’t pursue them.”
The
driver, Yoram Sharabi, relates, “As we approached the army base, we
saw a car parked on the side of the road. As we drove around it, they
turned on the lights, blinding us, and began shooting. Suddenly I heard
Menachem scream, “I was hit, I was hit!” I ran to the base and
called for help.”
Sharabi
met soldiers of the Golani shocktroop unit who were at the nearby base.
They had heard the shooting themselves and had immediately run to the
scene. The army medics gave first aid to the wounded. In the meantime,
the I.D.F. and the police of Yehuda and Shomron closed the highway and
began combing the area, searching for the terrorists’ car. A quarter
of an hour later, the car was found abandoned on a side road.
Apparently,
the terrorists continued on foot in the direction of Kfar Arina.
Security forces imposed a curfew on the village and began house-to-house
searches. The terrorists have not yet been apprehended.
Security
forces believe that the shooting was perpetrated by Hamas forces. Army
personnel indicated that at least two Hamas cells are operating in the
area.
News
of the shooting was reported to the Commanding Officer of I.D.F. forces
in Yehuda-Shomron, General Bogi Yaalon, while he was meeting his
Palestinian counterpart to sign the agreement of a further six percent
withdrawal from Yehuda-Shomron. As soon as he signed the agreement,
Yaalon was rushed to the scene of the shooting.
This
incident occurred on the so-called secure passage within the Green Line
in Area C, which is under full Israeli authority. A half a year ago,
five Israelis were wounded in the same area when terrorists shot from
close range at a busload of families who had come to spend the weekend
in the Jewish settlement in Hebron.
The
Council of Yesh’a reacted strongly to the attack and said,
“Barak’s government’s waiving the demand to round up illegal
weapons in the autonomous area, as well as the signing for withdrawals
despite the incident in Tarkumaya, testify to contempt for human life
and total intransigence.”
Head
of the Council in Kiryat Arba, Tzvi Katzover, said, “One attack
follows another. The terrorists return to areas that won’t be ours
tomorrow, and the blood is on the hands of those who compromise our
security and our land.”
President
Ezer Weizman visited Shmuel Offen in the hospital. At that time, Shmuli
was not able to talk, but was able to write the president a note asking
how it was that on that same day, Israel was ceremoniously meeting with
Palestinians to turn over control of those same roads to armed
Palestinians. Weizman avoided an answer, but Shmuli’s brother-in-law,
who was at his bedside, followed his lead, and a heated argument ensued.
As
of this report, Shmuli is talking and his condition is improving, baruch
Hashem. Relatives, friends, and the soldiers on his mivtzaim
route have been constant visitors to him and to the other boys when they
were in the hospital.
After
the incident, it was discovered that the mezuza on Mendy’s dorm
room was pasul. In the second paragraph of Sh’ma, the
letters Hei and Mem were transposed in the word “liv’hemtecha.”
A
close friend of Mendy wrote a note and placed it into a volume of Igros
Kodesh after the shooting. The answer appeared on page 238 of Vol.
18, and was written to Shmuel Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the names of
the three bachurim injured in the shooting! The letter was about mivtzaim,
and concluded that there should be good news, happy news, as it is the
month of Adar. The letter had been written by the Rebbe on Rosh Chodesh
Adar Sheini, and said that with Adar so close to the month of Nissan, we
should merit Moshiach now!
Before
he went on mivtzaim that Purim, Mendy had been indecisive about
whether to go to his usual spots around Hebron or to a larger army base
in a different area. Opening the Igros Kodesh, the Rebbe answered
that he should do mivtzaim through mesiras nefesh. He
chose to go to Hebron, but he did not understand until after the
shooting what the Rebbe had meant by mesiras nefesh.
He
and Schneur Wigler of Ramot were among a core group of bachurim
who had been regularly going on mivtzaim in the same area every
Erev Shabbos for the past two years. Although they had been in the
vehicle that was ambushed, Wigler and the other bachurim who had
not been injured returned to the area that night, undeterred, to
continue with their Purim mivtzaim. They also traveled that same
route on mivtzaim later that week. The soldiers were shocked and
pleasantly surprised when they saw the bachurim return the same
day of the shooting.
Wigler
said that he did not understand where his strength came from to continue
the mivtzaim after such a frightening incident occurred to them.
He could only say that the Rebbe gives them their enthusiasm and spirit.
Not only was their spirit not snuffed out by the attack, but on the
contrary, the incident gave the bachurim even more impetus to
carry forth. “That’s our way of getting back – by growing even
stronger,” said one of the bachurim.
Until
now, they had been using one car for mivtzaim. Now they are
planning to add another car and are planning a major increase in Torah shiurim
among the soldiers, and will distribute tefillin to those who
will use it on a regular basis.
Anyone
who wishes to assist in the mivtzaim either financially or
otherwise, or has tefillin to donate, can contact Wigler at
053-844-994.
Please
say Tehillim for Shmuel ben Devora and Menachem Mendel ben Devorah.
|