Kindergarten Teacher Murdered Near Chevron

A 40-year-old preschool teacher was murdered in front of her 6-year-old daughter in a shooting attack on Monday morning near the city of Chevron and an Israeli man, 39, was seriously wounded.

YWN

A 40-year-old Israeli woman was murdered in a shooting attack on Monday morning near the city of Chevron and an Israeli man, 39, was seriously wounded.

The woman, later identified as Batsheva Nigri, H’yd, a mother of three from the yishuv of Beit Chagai, had gotten a ride together with her 6-year-old daughter from her neighbor on the yishuv. The attack occurred at about 10:15 a.m. as they were driving on Route 60. The terrorists used their vehicle to cut their car off at an intersection and then opened fire, shooting at least 22 bullets from a submachine gun at the front seat from close range. They then fled the scene. The 6-year-old daughter sitting in the back seat was miraculously uninjured but witnessed her mother being shot to death in cold blood.

MDA paramedics and IDF medics provided emergency medical aid to the victims at the scene, carrying out resuscitation techniques on the woman, who was critically injured. Sadly, they were forced to pronounce her death shortly later. The male driver was seriously wounded and evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva.

A large number of Israeli security forces launched a manhunt for the terrorists, who are believed to have fled into the city of Chevron.

The Efrat Regional Council issued a statement mourning the “murder of Batsheva Nigri, H’yd, of the Ravid family from Efrat. Batsheva grew up in Efrat. She’s the mother of three daughters and was a known preschool teacher (gannenet) who was beloved by both children and parents.”

The nifteres worked in Efrat as a gannenet and was on the way to Efrat to organize her classroom for the first day of school. A friend of the family told Ynet, “She was a woman with a heart of gold, loving and giving to the children. She had the biggest heart you could ask for. It’s a terrible loss and a very difficult day for us.”

The injured man was later identified as Aryeh Gottlieb, a father of six who was on the way to buy schoolbooks for his children when the attack occurred. The public is asked to daven for the refuah sheleimah of Aryeh Leib ben Ella b’toch sha’ar cholei Yisrael.

The murderous attack comes only two days after an Israeli father and son were murdered in Huwara, with the manhunt for the terrorists still ongoing.