Boston-area student killed in Israel attack

In another day of violence last month, three Israelis and three Palestinians, including two said by Israel to have been attackers, were killed. One of the victims was American student Ezra Schwartz from Sharon, Massachusetts.

Samri said the attacker was apprehended by civilians and identified him as Raed Khalil bin Mahmoud, a 36-year-old Palestinian father of five from the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron. One shooter reportedly exited his auto and was shot and injured by security forces. He was killed as he handed out food to soldiers. “A few of his friends in the taxi were treated for shock but are Baruch Hashem (Thank God) physically uninjured”, read a statement from Rabbi Kenneth Brander of Yeshiva University. Their injuries are not life threatening.

Eighteen-year-old Ezra Schwartz was one of three people killed around 4:45 p.m. Israel time when a man armed with a submachine gun opened fire on vehicles in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, according to Tori E. Bentkover, director of communications for the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

According to the Israeli newspaper HaAretz, Schwartz had been studying at a yeshiva, or a Jewish religious academy, outside of Jerusalem during a post-high school gap year.

Haaretz reported that a gathering in Schwartz’s honor was held in his hometown of Sharon, Massachusetts.

Schwartz, the second of five children, is the child of Ari and Ruth Schwartz.

Goodwin told Haaretz that gap year studies in Israel were so common among their peers that they were “not especially worried” about the security situation.

The Maimonides School said Thursday in an emailed statement that the school community is “profoundly saddened” and mourns the death of Ezra Schwartz. “He was there with a group of his friends and I guess it was just somehow assumed the attacks would never hit this close to home”.

The funeral for Ezra Schwartz will be in the USA. It was the first of two attacks in Israel that day. These guys will get what they deserve.