Police Officer Who Shot Har Nof Attackers Dies of Wounds, Raising Death Toll to 5
Israeli emergency personnel take out a body of an Israeli man outside a synagogue in Jerusalem after a deadly terror attack. Image by Getty Images
The number of victims in the terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue rose to five with the death of a police officer.
Zidan Saif, 30, of the Druze village of Kfar Yanouch in the Galilee, died Tuesday evening from a gunshot wound to the head suffered in a shootout with the two Palestinian assailants in that morning’s attack at Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov. The synagogue was located in the fervently Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood of western Jerusalem.
Seven others were injured in the attack, some critically.
Eyewitnesses told the Times of Israel that Saif was shot while protecting another police officer. He is married and the father of a 4-month-old daughter.
Four worshippers, all rabbis, also were killed in the attack, which took place during services. Three of the dead are dual American and Israeli citizens; one was also a British citizen.
Israeli police killed the two assailants, Palestinian cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal of eastern Jerusalem.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
