The two sisters who were murdered in a terror attack in the West Bank were identified on Saturday as 20-year-old Maia Di and 15-year-old Rina Dee from the Israeli community of Efrat. Their mother, Lucy (Lucianne), was critically injured in the shooting and has been in an induced coma since Friday.
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Maia and Rina succumbed to their wounds after being shot in the Jordan Valley region on Friday. Medics said they crashed their car after Palestinian terrorists either deliberately rammed their vehicle into it or fired at it, causing it to swerve from the road.
It is understood that the terrorists approached the vehicle after the initial salvo that left the women hurt and fired execution-style at point-blank range. Israel's army confirmed that the incident represented a terror attack and launched a manhunt for the two terrorists, who apparently fled on foot.
"On behalf of all the citizens of Israel, I send my condolences to the Di family for the murder of the two wonderful sisters, Rina and Maia, in the severe attack" in the Jordan Valley," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement shortly after their names were released.
They were born in London and moved to Israel in 2014. The sisters' funeral was to be held on Sunday in the West Bank settlement of Kfar Etzion.
Their mother, who was also a victim of the attack, is still in the hospital in critical condition. "In these moments, the family is fighting for their lives, and together with all the people of Israel, I pray for their safety, and we all send our condolences and strength to this dear family in this moment of great sorrow," Netanyahu continued. "Our forces are operating in the field in hot pursuit of the terrorists. It is only a matter of time, and not much time, before we will come to terms with them as we came to terms with all the murderers, without exception, in the last months."
"May the memory of Rina and Maia be blessed and enshrined in our hearts always," he concluded.
The attack came amid an escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan that included rocket barrages by Palestinian terrorists both from Lebanon and Gaza, from where the Hamas terror group praised the attack as representing a "natural response" to "Zionist crimes against Al Aqsa."
The fatalities from the Friday shooting took the Israeli death toll from Palestinian terrorism in 2023 to 17. The same day later in the evening, one person was killed and seven others were wounded in a separate terror attack in which a Palestinian rammed his car into them in Tel Aviv.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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