After terror suspects killed, Leo Dee says he’d like to speak to their families

Rabbi Leo Dee said Thursday he was comforted by the IDF’s elimination of the alleged killers of his wife and two daughters in the Jordan Valley terror shooting last month, and that he would like to confront the perpetrators’ family.

“I want to meet the parents and siblings of the terrorists and ask them two questions: What did they think they would accomplish with what they did and what is their vision for the future — what do they want for their grandchildren?” Dee said in an interview with Army Radio, hours after the IDF operation in Nablus in which the two suspects were shot dead along with a third Palestinian gunman, all of them members of the Hamas terror group.

Dee told Channel 12 he and his daughter Tali were “comforted” significantly by the news of the terrorists’ killing since “they posed a massive danger.” His other surviving daughter Keren felt differently, saying nothing could comfort her after losing her two sisters and mother.

However, she said that she did gain a degree of happiness from knowing the donation of her mother’s organs had saved lives.

Leo Dee added that he doesn’t blame the Palestinian people as a whole for the murders of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina. He said he had received calls from many Palestinians who condemned the attack, said the perpetrators were inhumane and stressed they believed the shooting did not represent “the will of Allah.”

“They told me this and I believe them,” Dee told Channel 12.

⭕️فيديو يوثق لحظة تسلل القوات الخاصة إلى البلدة القديمة في نابلس صباح اليوم. pic.twitter.com/Kbt9Hr16nR

— إذاعة الأقصى – عاجل (@Alaqsavoice_Brk) May 4, 2023

In a joint statement after the Thursday operation, the Shin Bet security agency, Israel Police, and Israel Defense Forces said troops entered the Nablus Old City in order to arrest Hassan Qatnani and Moaz al-Masri, the Hamas terrorists who allegedly carried out the deadly attack on April 7.

Footage published by Palestinian media showed undercover officers walking through the streets of the city, while dressed up as a group of Palestinian men and women.

Members of police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit surrounded the home where the two terrorists were believed to be hiding. The forces fired a shoulder-launched missile at it, according to Palestinian media, in a tactic known as a “pressure cooker,” to flush out wanted suspects.

From left: Lucy Dee is seen with her daughters Rina and Maia. The two sisters were shot dead in a terrorist attack in the West Bank on April 7, 2023. Their mother, critically hurt in the attack, died on April 10, 2023. (Courtesy)

Armed clashes took place around the home, and the two terrorists were killed along with another gunman, Ibrahim Jabr, who had aided them in hiding, the joint statement said.

The three members of the Dee family killed were dual Israeli-British nationals who lived in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, just south of Jerusalem, after moving to Israel some eight years ago.

The Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the victims’ car near the settlement of Hamra in the northern Jordan Valley, as they were heading north on a trip to Tiberias on April 7. The vehicle crashed on the highway’s shoulder, and the terrorists then fired at the car again at close range. The daughters, 20-year-old Maia and 15-year-old Rina were declared dead at the scene, while Lucy, 48, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but died three days later.