Rabbi Leo Dee, the father and husband of the three British Israelis killed in the Jordan Valley attack this month, gave an exclusive interview with the British-based Sky News outlet.
In it, he expressed his immense pride in his wife and daughters and urged the international community to work together to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Dee also commended James Cleverly, the British secretary of state, for rephrasing his initial statement to the incident and issuing a categorical condemnation.
Dee compared it to the Balfour declaration acknowledging Israel’s right to exist and said, “I feel that statement, saying that Britain stands unequivocally against violence and terror, is a landmark in British history in terms of the way it’s dealt with the State of Israel.”
“Up until now, there hasn’t been a clear-cut condemnation of violence; rather, there has been a very sort of wishy-washy condemnation of violence,” he remarked.
“There can be no justification for such senseless and abhorrent violence, and I unequivocally condemn this act of terrorism,” Clever wrote in a letter to Dee.
“The UK remains steadfast in our commitment to work with the Israeli authorities and all parties in the region to end the violence cycle that, as we have seen all too clearly, is so destructive as well as the terrorism that Israel faces.”
On Friday, April 7, the Dee family was traveling through the Jordan Valley in the West Bank on their way to a Pesach holiday at Lake Galilee.
Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were traveling in the car with Lucy Dee when Palestinian militants shot at it.
After forcing their automobile off the road, the terrorists halted and resumed firing at it. Near the automobile, twenty gunshot casings were discovered.
At the scene, authorities pronounced Maia and Rina deceased. For urgent surgery, Lucy was flown to a hospital outside of Jerusalem.
“I called Lucy but got no answer. No answer when I called Maia. Rina didn’t pick up when I called her. At this moment, we were feeling a little anxious. I checked Google Family Link and discovered they were at the Hamra Junction, which seemed to be the scene of the incident, Leo Dee recounted.
“This website sent a picture of the car to my kid. We just saw the car, but we saw our bloody baggage inside.
Police forbade them from going to the car, so they drove around and back to the intersection.
They did see Maia’s ID card, though. They realized the worst had occurred at that point.
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