“We will lay our hands on the killers”

Palestinian Arab terrorists opened fire on an Israeli vehicle on Thursday evening, killing 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman and wounding two other young Jewish men.

As Dimentman’s funeral got underway on Friday morning, Israeli security officials vowed they they would “lay hands” on the killers.

Yehuda Dimentman was killed just outside the northern Samaria outpost of Homesh, which was officially abandoned as part of Israel’s 2005 “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. But several years ago a group of religious Jewish settlers retook the barren hilltop and established a small yeshiva there.

Dimentman and the other passengers in the vehicle were students at that yeshiva. He leaves behind a wife and a nine-month-old child.

Friday’s funeral began in Homesh, and despite it still being labeled an “illegal” outpost, a number of state officials were in attendance, including Member of Knesset Nir Barkat (Likud) and the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.

הרב שמואל אליהו יחד עם חברי הכנסת ניר ברקת ואורית סטרוק עם ראש המועצה יוסי דגן בהלוויה הבוקר בחומש של הנרצח בפיגוע אתמול יהודה דימנטמן הי”ד@NirBarkat @oritstrock pic.twitter.com/FNh14nGzVS

— מרדכי עמאר (@mordechay_amar) December 17, 2021

Security officials say the attack was a roadside ambush, and they are conducting a comprehensive manhunt to apprehend the perpetrators.

“At this time, security forces — the IDF, Shin Bet, police and additional forces — are pursuing the murderers. We’re going to put our hands on the terrorists and capture them,” Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, head of the IDF’s Central Command, told local media. “We’re responsible for defense here, and we’ll do everything in our ability to provide protection for the residents and capture the murderers and terrorists that carried out this attack.”

Several Palestinian terror groups have praised the murder of Dimentman, but thus far none have taken credit for the attack.