Father of murdered British-Israeli family ‘delighted’ gunmen have been killed
A British-Israeli rabbi has said he is “delighted” that the Hamas operatives who shot dead his wife and daughters have been killed.
Israeli special forces killed two Palestinian gunmen suspected of killing the three women in April, during a raid on militant groups in the northern West Bank.
A joint statement by the Israeli army and security services said a third gunman was also killed during the raid, in the city of Nablus, and that all three suspects were members of the Islamist group Hamas.
Lucy Dee and two of her daughters, Maia and Rina, were shot dead in their car by Palestinian gunmen on April 7 as they drove through the Jordan Valley on a family trip. Israeli officials on Thursday named the three slain gunmen as Hassan Katnani, Moaz Masri and Ibrahim Hura.
Israeli officials said the suspects were killed by Israel’s Yamam special forces unit during the raid, which lasted around one hour.
“I and the kids were delighted to hear that the terrorists were neutralised and eliminated today, and most of all that it was done in a way that apparently did not endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers,” Rabbi Leo Dee, the victims’ husband and father, said on Thursday. “Because that was one of the most important things from our family’s perspective.”
The three Dee family members were killed during the Passover holiday season as they travelled through the occupied West Bank from their home in the settlement of Efrat towards the city of Tiberias. The family moved to Israel from the UK nine years ago.
Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, died at the scene of the attack while their mother Lucy, 48, was taken to hospital and later died of her injuries. Some 22 bullet casings were found at the scene, apparently from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Lucy Dee’s organs, including her heart and lungs, were donated to five Israeli citizens after her death, allowing life-saving transplants. Leo Dee, her husband, has said he has “no hatred” in his heart for the killers of his wife and daughters.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that three people were killed in the raid but did not immediately identify them.
Israel had for several weeks been carrying out a manhunt for the Dee family’s killers. Nablus, where the raid occurred, is a major flashpoint in the northern West Bank and the scene of multiple Israeli raids targeting Palestinian militant groups over the past year.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, said Israel had “settled accounts” with the killers.
“Our message to those who harm us, and those who want to harm us, is that whether it takes a day, a week or a month – you can be certain that we will settle accounts with you. It does not matter where you try to hide – we will find you. Whoever attacks us will pay the price,” he said.
