Israel Mourns Victims of Terrorist Attack

Stand for Israel  |  April 8, 2022

The day after a terrorist opened fire on the streets of Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and wounding many more, the people of Israel have come together to mourn. The Times of Israel’s Carrie Keller-Lynn reports on the somber silence on the streets of Tel Aviv in the wake of the terrorist shooting:

…a makeshift memorial has already taken shape.

Next to a handwritten sign that says “Jewish blood is not cheap” in Hebrew, passersby stopped Friday morning to light and place memorial candles, adding to the growing collection. The area has been tidied up and cordoned off by blue police barricades, with flowers already placed on the spot where just hours before, young Tel Avivians gathered at the close of the Israeli work week.

Around 9 p.m. on Thursday night, Palestinian terrorist Ra’ad Hazem, a 28-year-old from Jenin in the northern West Bank, approached the popular bar on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street and opened fire, striking 15 people. The street — well-known for its nightlife and eateries — has long been a target of attacks, most recently a 2016 deadly shooting on watering hole Simta, similarly situated on the open-air sidewalk and just 200 meters from Ilka.

Following a house-to-house manhunt overnight that involved over 1,000 police and security personnel, Hazem was located several kilometers away in Jaffa. He was killed Friday morning in a firefight with security forces…

But while we are thankful for Israeli security forces who keep the people of Israel safe, we also mourn the three victims of this most recent terrorist attack. The Jerusalem Post tells us that about one, a father of three who represented Israel as an Olympian:

Barak Lopen, 35, is the third victim of Thursday’s shooting attack on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, the family announced on Friday. Lopen was critically injured in the shooting and succumbed to his wounds at Sourasky Medical Center.

Lopen was a former Olympian kayaker and represented Israel in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.

He was originally from Kibbutz Ginossar on the shores of the Kinneret but lived in Givat Shmuel, and was married with three children.

The other two victims were also young Israeli men, both 27 years old, one of them recently engaged. Let us remember their loved ones, asking God to comfort them, as we continue to pray for His protection over the Holy Land.