14 Days: Hamas war

Rabbi Yitzhak Zeiger, 57, a father of three and resident of Shavei Shomron; and Uria Hartum, a 16-year-old high school student from Dolev, were killed when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on an Israeli car at a gas station near Eli on February 29. The assailant was shot dead at the scene by the owner of a nearby hummus restaurant, Aviad Gazbar, who had recently returned from reserve duty in the Gaza Strip.  “I fired a bullet so that the terrorist would know I was here. I saw that he saw me, and he started charging towards me. I took him down and continued scanning,” Gazbar said. The Shin Bet later identified the terrorist as Muhammad Manasra, 31, an officer in the Palestinian Authority police force.

A state commission of inquiry held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, police commanders, and other officials responsible for the 2021 Meron crowd crush in which 45 people were killed. Its final report presented on March 6 determined that Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who served as public security minister at the time, and police chief Kobi Shabtai, along with several other officials, all bore personal responsibility for Israel’s worst civilian disaster. “Netanyahu did not act as expected of a prime minister to correct this state of affairs [at Meron], despite the fact that the issue was the focus of serious reports from the state comptroller,” it said.

Avraham “Baiga” Shochat, a former finance minister and one of the founders of the city of Arad, died in Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital on February 28 at the age of 87. Following three terms as mayor of Arad, from 1967 to 1989, Shochat was elected to the Knesset for the Labor Party in 1988. After chairing the Knesset economy and finance committees, he served as finance minister twice, from 1992-1996 and between 1999 and 2001. “Baiga, who for many years walked in trust and partnership with prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, was not a man of words but rather a restless achiever,” President Isaac Herzog said, noting that he had recently celebrated the launch of Shochat’s autobiography, Between Desert and Treasure. Shochat was married to Tama, the daughter of prime minister Levi Eshkol, with whom he had three children.