Rise in terror attacks in Judea and Samaria leave families needing charity’s help


Rise in terror attacks in Judea and Samaria leave families needing charity’s help

Some 35 Israelis have been killed in cold-blooded terror attacks over the past Jewish year, according to Israeli government statistics. This includes a large number of attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria. 

There has also been an alarming rise in the number of shooting attacks. Throughout the Second Intifida (terror war), suicide bombing attacks became the preferred method of terror. In the mid-2010s, there was a spate of stabbings. It would obviously seem that shootings are the new tactics employed by Palestinian terrorists.

Batsheva Nagari, a 40-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother, was shot as she drove through the Hebron Hills south of Jerusalem in late August. Just the day before, Aviad Nir (28) and his father Silas Nigreker (60) were shot in cold blood as they took their car for a wash near the town of Huwara. In April of this year, Rabbi Leo Dee and his family were traveling in separate cars when his wife and two of his daughters were gunned down in the Jordan Valley. In June, Palestinian gunmen affiliated with Hamas opened fire at a gas station near Eli and Shiloh in Samaria, killing four Israelis and wounding four others.

Hallel Yaniv and Yagel Yaniv, two brothers from Har Bracha, were murdered in February when they were shot in their car also near Huwara. Huwara has proved to be a hotbed of Palestinian terrorism as Jews who live in the area have to drive through the town to reach Jewish neighborhoods. A bypass road that can help to avoid further attacks is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

More and more Jews are returning to live in their biblical homeland in Judea and Samaria, but the daily risks to their lives can leave families in trauma. Above are just some of the victims to have been killed over the past 12 months, and every one of them has left behind a devastated family, children, and friends.

Thousands of children and families across Judea and Samaria suffer from the effects of Palestinian terror attacks. Daily life for these children is constantly dangerous, and many who have lived through Islamic terror suffer from trauma, anxiety, depression, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The international charity Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund (SICF) provides these children with the lifesaving therapies they need to help them heal from their traumas.

Different therapies on offer include music therapy, art therapy, drama therapy, small animal therapy, and horseback riding therapy. Every child is different and responds differently to therapy and the number of creative and innovative therapies available allow every single child to get the help he or she desperately needs. 

Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund’s founder David Rubin and his son have, themselves, learned how to rebuild their lives after a terror attack.

In 2001, American-born David Rubin had just finished his term as mayor of the Israeli town of Shiloh, and as he was driving home one evening from Jerusalem with his three-year-old son, his car was ambushed by three Palestinian terrorists. He was wounded in the leg and his son was shot in the head, but the bullet missed his brain stem by one millimeter and he survived the attack.

“Thank God, my son is physically okay now,” Rubin says. “But he is still dealing with the emotional trauma to this day.”

Transformed by the experience, Rubin wanted to build something positive after the difficult two years of recovery. In 2004, he established Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund in order to help children living in the biblical heartland to recover from trauma. The organization supports vital therapeutic, educational, and recreational programs, with a particular focus on the Shiloh bloc of communities in the heartland of Biblical Israel, where the children have suffered terribly from the terrorism of the past few years.

Rubin is an active philanthropist and author, who has written seven  books, including “God, Israel and Shiloh”, “Trump and the Jews”, and “Confronting Radicals: What America Can Learn from Israel”.

To stand with the terror victim children, please visit: https://www.israelchildren.org/

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