Israel Matzav

Rabbi Dan Mertzbach z"l

The driver who was killed on Friday morning at a makeshift roadblock on Route 60 was Rabbi Dan Mertzbach z"l (of blessed memory) from Otniel. He was on his way to sunrise services at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Hundreds attended his funeral on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Mertzbach was traveling to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron for morning prayers when a member of an IDF force, signaling for him to slow down, opened fire and killed him. An initial IDF investigation found that Mertzbach did not see the soldiers hailing him with flashlights.

The funeral procession set out from the Otniel settlement in the West Bank, where Mertzbach resided, to the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem, where he was laid to rest.

Mertzbach served as rabbi for several communities in the Hebron area. He is survived by his wife and five children.

The Defense Ministry announced to the National Insurance Institute on Friday that Mertzbach will be recognized as the victim of a "terror event."

The classification will allow the National Insurance Institute to provide welfare benefits to Mertzbach's family.

The Defense Ministry generally reserves classifying incidents as terror events for cases in which a terrorist has carried out an attack causing injury or death.

The soldier who fired eight shots at Mertzbach's vehicle, killing him and injuring two other people, believed his life was in danger, an initial IDF investigation found.

Earlier on Friday, Israel Radio reported that the IDF was investigating whether the soldier in question had violated the open fire rules.

What I don't understand is why he shot at the car and not at its tires. The soldiers are instructed to shoot a car's tires out first when that sort of thing happens. There has been no mention of anyone in the car pulling a weapons, regardless of what they thought was happening, so shooting out the tires should have ended it.

Israel Radio also reported earlier that the car was traveling at high speed (not surprising given the fear of 'Palestinian' terror attacks in the area) and that it was traveling without lights, which is apparently what aroused suspicion in the first place.

A tragedy all the way around.

Labels: Hebron, IDF, Machpeila cave, open fire rules

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:51 PM