Jerusalem – The Israeli government on Thursday returned the corpses of the two terrorists who carried out November’s Har Nof massacre, resulting in the brutal murders of five men.
A court order denied cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal of Jabel Mukaber burial rights in Jerusalem, and only 40 people were permitted to attend their West Bank funerals in the village of Arab a-Saharra, Palestinian media reported.
The five fatalities included Har Nof residents Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, 43, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, 68, Rabbi Kalman Ze’ev Levine, 55, Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59, and Druse Border Police officer Zidan Saif, 30, of Kfar Yanouch in the Galilee.
Two days after the attack, a video posted by an Arab news organization showed the mother of Uday Abu Jamal praising her son and his cousin for the murders, Israel media reported.
Following the massacre, the wife and three children of Ghassan Muhammad Abu Jamal were stripped of their state-sponsored health-care benefits after the Israeli government announced it would deport the killer’s family and demolish their home.
The family has appealed the demolition orders and Jamal plans to marry one of her husband’s five brothers so she can remain in Jerusalem, a family spokesman said.