Jerusalem, 9 April, 2023 (TPS) — British-Israeli terror victims Maya and Rina Dee will be laid to rest on Sunday afternoon, as their mother fights for her life.
The funeral procession is due to begin at 4:00 PM in Efrat, south of Jerusalem, where the family. The girls will be buried side by side in the Kfar Etzion cemetery.
The British-Israeli sisters, Maya and Rina Dee, 20 and 16 respectively, were killed in a Palestinian drive-by shooting in the northern Jordan Valley while on a family outing on Friday.
The car was found riddled with bullet holes. The girls’ mother, Leah, who was driving, lost control of the car and crashed into another vehicle. Investigators found 22 bullet casings at the scene.
The 48-year-old mother remains in critical condition at the Hadassah University Hospital-Ein Kerem. The public is asked to pray for the recovery of Leah bat Tzipora.
Hundreds of Efrat residents gathered for a prayer vigil on Saturday night.
Leah Dee taught English at Efrat’s Yeshivat B’nai Akiva Orot Yehuda School.
Rachel Schwartz, a resident of Efrat, told the Tazpit Press Service she got to know Leah during their time at Milabev, a daycare facility for seniors with dementia and Alzheimers in nearby Alon Shvut. Schwartz, a therapist at the facility, recalled that Dee was a volunteer at the center for a year until the COVID pandemic.
“There isn’t a nicer kinder family. An amazing and incredible mother who would do anything for her children,” Schwartz told TPS. “Anyone who volunteers to work with seniors who have dementia or Alzheimers is pretty amazing.”
The girls’ father, Rabbi Leo Dee, was driving ahead in a separate car with two other children. The rabbi turned his car around and returned to the scene when he heard about the attack.
The manhunt for the terrorists is focusing on the area around Jericho.
The attack came amid rising Palestinian tensions coinciding with the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Islamist Palestinians have been barricading themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque with stockpiles of rocks and firecrackers.
On Friday night Italian tourist Alessandro Parini was killed and seven other people were injured when an Arab-Israeli rammed his car into a crowd of people on a crowded seaside promenade in Tel Aviv. The other victims were identified as Italian and British nationals.
On Wednesday night rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza and Lebanon.
