Israel mourns the man who yesterday in Jerusalem attacked the two Hamas terrorists who were shooting at dozens of people waiting for the bus, neutralizing them both in a matter of seconds with gunshots. The last images show him kneeling on the asphalt with his hands raised and the gun thrown to the ground. According to a witness, he desperately shouted “don’t shoot at me, I’m Israeli, I’m Jewish”. But he was still hit by the bullets of two reserve soldiers who came from another direction determined to shoot down the Hamas killers: they thought he was one of them and shot to kill. After much hesitation, the military judiciary today announced that it had opened an investigation into their behavior.
Israel-Hamas war, today’s news
A seventy-year-old rabbi, the director of a religious school and a young pregnant bride were killed in the attack claimed by Hamas. Yuval Doron Kastelman – this is the name of what is now called ‘the hero of Jerusalem’ – was a 38-year-old lawyer and civil servant. Yesterday he saw the first stages of the attack while he was in his car, in the opposite lane to that of the attackers. He drew his gun, ran across four lanes and surprised them from the side. His aim was precise and he managed to block the killers, thus preventing the outcome from being even more tragic. But the two reservists arrived from another side: the images released on the web show him pleading, then gasping under their bullets.
Now the two soldiers – who yesterday gave an interview to a far-right television – are under accusation. The tragedy immediately took on a political connotation, also because yesterday – at the site of the attack – the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir (of the far-right Jewish Power party) returned to claim the decision to distribute weapons en masse to civilians to strengthen security. “These weapons – said Ben Gvir – save human lives” because they allow attacks to be stopped in the initial phase even in the absence of agents. Apparently, there will be no criminal implications for the two soldiers also because an autopsy was not conducted on Kastelman’s body and therefore it will not be possible to establish what type of bullet killed him. However, they may have broken military discipline by having repeatedly fired at a person who posed no danger, having dropped the weapon and raised their hands.
In 2016, Israel was divided over the case of Elor Azaria: a corporal who fatally shot a Palestinian attacker after he lay wounded on the ground, now neutralized. Although military leaders indicted and then convicted him, Azaria later became a symbol for the far right. Today Kastelman would have celebrated his birthday. Instead he was buried in a cemetery in northern Israel. “It was his character, always ready to throw himself to the aid of others”, said his family. “Goodbye, hero of Jerusalem,” was the epitaph of public radio Kan.
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