Rabbi Shay Ohayon from Petach Tikva, who was murdered by a Palestinian on Wednesday in what appears to be a terrorist attack, was laid to rest in his home city hours after he was stabbed to death not far from his burial site.
Ohayon, 39, leaves behind four children and a wife Sivan. Hundreds of friends and family members attended his funeral.
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The chief rabbi of the city, Rabbi Micha Halevy eulogized him: "Here, in this junction, your life's work was targeted. Rabbi Shay, who was here standing until several hours ago, was a shy person. But today everyone knows who he was. We want him to pray for all of us."
Shas MK Uriel Busso also eulogized him, saying: "Everyone is shocked by this tragedy. In recent weeks we have dealt with demolitions of terrorists' homes and I know that you would have said that such measures never help."
Ohayon was killed on his way back from a Torah-study institution he was attending, having just gotten off the bus back from Kfar Saba. The attacker, a Palestinian from Nablus who reportedly has a mental illness, stabbed him several times and attempted to flee the scene but was chased by members of the public and ultimately detained by police.
Ohayon was critically injured and was later pronounced dead in the hospital.
Investigators are looking into the attacker's background to determine whether he was mentally unstable, but it is likely that the attack will be classified as terrorism. Ohayon is the first Israeli to die from a terrorist attack in almost a year.
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