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- Ben Morris & Lucy Williamson
- BBC news
Maia and Lina Dee were shot while driving from their home in Efrat’s settlement to Tiberias.
Maia and Lina Dee are named after two British-Israeli sisters who were killed in shootings in the occupied West Bank.
The sisters died Friday afternoon near Hamra Junction, north of the Jordan Valley, en route to Tiberias.
They were the children of Rabbi Leo Dee from London, who described death as a “nightmare.”
Their mother, Leah, remains in critical condition in hospital.
Maia was 20 years old and volunteered for national service in high school, while her younger sister Rina was 15.
Their car was forced off the road after their father was shot by a gunman while driving ahead in another car. Rabbi Dee heard news of the attack before realizing his own family was involved.
Speaking to the BBC, he described his daughters as “beautiful and wonderful” and said he had been unable to sleep since they died.
“Every time I woke up with a nightmare,” he said.
The mayor said the family lives in the Eflat West Bank area. The sister’s funeral will be held on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described the incident as a terrorist attack, offered his condolences to the bereaved family in a tweet naming the sisters.
Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mervis, said: “Words cannot express the depth of our shock and sadness at this heartbreaking news.”
He said on Twitter that the two sisters are the children of British Rabbi Dee and his wife Lucy, and are understood to be the English name of their mother, Leah.
“They were loved not only in the UK but in the Hendon and Radlett communities in Israel and well beyond,” he added.
The British Jewish Parliamentary Assembly said it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by their deaths, adding that their father was a rabbi at the Radlett United Synagogue in Hertfordshire.
The Israeli military said its troops had blocked roads in the area and were searching for the attackers after the shooting.
Also on Friday, an Italian tourist was killed and seven others, including three Britons, were injured in a suspected car crash in Tel Aviv.
The military said the attack was in response to a barrage of 34 rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Thursday and blamed the group.
The rocket attacks from Lebanon sparked outrage throughout the region, following two nights of raids by Israeli police on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
Hamas did not claim it was behind the shooting of the British-Israeli woman, but praised it as a “natural response to Israel”. [Israel’s] The ongoing crimes against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the barbaric attacks against Lebanon and a staunch Gaza.”
After the two sisters were shot, Israeli Police Chief Kobi Shabtai called on all Israelis with firearms licenses to start carrying weapons.
In response to news of the sister’s death on Friday, the UK Foreign Office said:
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