Thousands gathered along Route 60 in Samaria Monday afternoon, ahead of the funerals of the two Israeli men shot and killed by an Arab terrorist in the village of Huwara Sunday afternoon.
Brothers Hillel Menachem Yaniv, 22, and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv, 20, residents of the Samaria town of Har Bracha, are set to be laid to rest at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem Monday afternoon, a day after they were murdered by a terrorist while driving down Route 60.
As the Yaniv family drove south from Har Bracha to Jerusalem via Route 60, thousands of residents of Samaria gathered in Har Bracha and at intersections and junctions along the way in honor of the slain brothers.
“We have no words to describe this catastrophe,” Esti Yaniv, the mother of the two victims, told reporters ahead of the funerals. “What is there to say? Instead of taking them to the chuppah [marriage canopy], we need to bury them.”
Mrs. Yaniv called on the government to restore security to Samaria.
“We cannot allow ourselves this kind of loss [of security].”
“We also really want to prove that that the eternal nation is not afraid of the long journey.”
Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan, who stood alongside the bereaved parents, said: “We are living in a terrible, incomprehensible reality, in which the murder of two brothers is carried out, almost like an execution, while they are driving down the road in the middle of the State of Israel.”
“That is a situation that no people would be willing to accept, nor can we accept it.”