Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday met with Sergeant “S,” a soldier from the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade who shot and killed the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 8 attack at the Ramot Junction in Jerusalem.
The meeting took place in Netanyahu’s office, where the soldier was joined by his fiancée.
The prime minister praised him for his decisive action during the attack, which left six Israelis dead. “You did a great thing and saved many people,” Netanyahu said. “I want to thank you on behalf of the government of Israel, the State of Israel and the people of Israel. Well done—you prevented a very great disaster.”
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, issuing a statement urging its followers to “kill them wherever you come upon them.” The Palestinian terror group praised the two gunmen—Mohammad Taha and Muthanna Amro—for “killing Zionists and wounding others, some of them critically, before ascending to their Lord as martyrs, facing the enemy without turning back.”
The slain Israelis were identified as Yosef David, 43; Sarah Mendelson, 60; Israel Mentzer, 28; Levi Yitzhak Pash, 57; Yaakov Pinto, 25; and Mordechai Steintzeg, 79.
A day after the attack, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) carried out a targeted strike against senior members of Hamas’s leadership in Doha, Qatar.
Netanyahu said the strikes were ordered because Hamas “initiated and organized the Oct. 7 massacre and has continued to launch murderous actions against the State of Israel and its citizens since then, including claiming responsibility for the killing of our citizens in yesterday’s attack in Jerusalem.”
