Thread by @ignis_fatum

1. On April 11th 1956 , 65 years ago, 3 Palestinian terrorists from the #WestBank (then Jordanian territory) had managed to infiltrate the just founded synagogue in the School of Agriculture in moshav Shafrir (now part of Kfar Habad) while the students were praying there.

Approximately at 20:00 (8PM) in the evening, while the students were in the middle of the “Shmone Esre” prayer in the synagogue, 3 Palestinian terrorists entered the compound.

One waited by the escape vehicle, another cut the electricity to the synagogue, plunging the interior into darkness, and the third entered the synagogue and fired into the crowd of 46 children aged 9–16 praying inside at the time, some began to flee through the windows.

When the power was fixed, 1 of the schools councilors and four students were found pilled up near the door, lying covered in blood, murdered.
5 more students were shot and seriously injured, 1 of them will pass away due to the severity of his injuries.

A group of men gathered firearms kept in a small defense locker and rushed to the school, arriving about five minutes after the attack began, but by that time, the shooting had stopped and the terrorists had made their escape, never to be seen again.

The police were called with the village's only telephone, and the only 2 vehicles in the village were used to take the wounded to the nearby Tzrifin Medical Center (now Itzhak Shamir Hospital) hospital.

The horrific massacre shocked the residents of Shafrir, most of which were Holocaust survivors and triggering fresh memories from it. The traumatized villagers began to seriously consider abandoning the moshav and flee elsewhere.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was consulted and responded that they should remain and continue to build, the Rebbe sent a group of shluchim, including Rabbi Yehuda Krinski, to strengthen the residents after the tragic event.

The massacre shocked the Israeli public.
Israeli newspapers reported on the attack and the despondent national mood amidst the plague of terror attacks by Palestinian terrorists infiltrating from the #WestBank and #Gaza and their aftermaths for days

2. On April 11th 1974 , 47 years ago, PFLP terrorists armed with machine guns and explosives had infiltrated the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona , and began murdering civilians in the residential buildings there. The attack will be later known as the “Kiryat Shmona massacre”

The terrorists crossed the border from #Lebanon to #Israel in the early morning, under cover of rain and fog, near moshav Margaliot.
They followed a hidden path inside the Margaliot stream , and arrived in Kiryat Shmona , approximately at 07:30 (AM)

Border Police soldiers on a routine patrol discovered the traces of the infiltration at 06:40 (AM), and while they were following it, the terrorists' infiltration into the town became known and the information had been passed to the IDF and Israeli police.

The terrorists first entered the Janusz Korczak Elementary School, but it was empty because of the Passover week holidays.
From there, they turned inside 1 of the residential neighborhoods of Kiryat Shmona.

The heavily armed terrorists entered a four-story residential building (house number 13 on Yehuda HaLevi street), broke into the 1st apartment on the ground floor where the Cohen family was having breakfast , unbeknownst to the deranged plans of the terrorists.

The terrorists barged into the apartment , and before the family could even understand what is happening , ruthlessly murdered Esther Cohen (47) and her 2 children , David (18) and Shula (Shulamit) (14).

Esthers husband, Yehuda and their 2 other daughters, Michal and Sarah were not at home and survived.
Esther , Yehuda , Michal and Sarah were forced to flee their hometown of Rabat in Morroco and made decided to make alliyah to Israel in 1956. Shulamit was born in Israel.

After massacring the Cohen family , the terrorists left building number 13 and ran across the street to the identical 4 story building number 15 on Yehuda HaLevi street.
At that point the residents there already knew what was coming and began trying to flee the building.

The terrorists barged into the first apartment on the ground floor , where the Stern family was living , they immediately saw frightened Hanche Stern (47) tried to hide her 8 year old daughter Rachel .

Hanche knew that her husband , and other 4 children were in a near by room , so she attempted to divert the attention of the terrorists to her by loudly screaming to try and buy them time to flee. The terrorists shot and murdered them in cold blood both immediately

Both Hanche and her husband Ya’akov were born in Focșani, Romania.
After surviving the Holocaust they stayed in Soviet Romania , but had to flee it at 1964 as the new regime began enacting new antisemitic policies.

Simultaneously Miriam and Ya’akov Guetta, a married couple who lived on the 3rd floor, heard the shouts from the Stern family's apartment on the 1st floor. They ran down the stairs, and instead of escaping outside the building, they turned to enter the Stern family's apartment.

Miriam (27) was shot and murdered immediately, Ya’akov (26) was shot, injured and died of his wounds.
The terrorists threw 2 grenades inside the apartment , wounding the other children of the Stern family that took the opportunity, jumping out of the window and managing to flee .

Miriam was born in Egypt and Ya’akov was born in Tunisia , their families made alliyah to Israel while fleeing the deadly antisemitic persecution in their homelands.
They just got married and Miriam was on her 6 month of pregnancy when she was murdered.

Members of the Bitton family, who lived on the 4th floor of the building, tried to save their children by moving them through the balcony to the floor below to the Guetta apartment .
They did not know at that point that the terrorists already entered the apartment.

Shim’on (31) and his 2 small children 2 year old Anat and 6 year old Abraham were murdered by the terrorists.
The mother of the family Shoshana and her last living son Dror were shot by the terrorists ,jumped from the 4th floor of the building and miraculously survived.

Yosef Shitrit was at work while his wife Fanny and their 4 children were at home, their daughter Iris, saw 1 of the terrorists enter the apartment and ran into her room, while she tried picking up her little brother Moti (9) but he was so scared he ran away

30 year old Fanny and her 3 children Yocheved (11), Moti (9) and Aharon (8) were murdered by the terrorists in cold blood.
Nine year old Iris was seriously wounded after a grenade was thrown by the terrorists but she survived.

Both Fanny and Yossef were born in Morocco and had to flee it with their families due to the antisemitic violence in their country. Both of their families chose to make aliyah to Israel and lived ever since in Kiryat Shmona where they eventually met and got married.

The terrorists then began searching the building for more victims , eventually , they managed to find the frightened Shaul Ramrazker (64) and Esther Wazzaneh (60) which were both hiding from the terrorists in their apartments on the 2nd floor of the building and murdered them.

Esther was born in 1914 in Morocco,and had to flee it with her husband and their families in the 50s and chose to make alliyah to Israel.
That day her daughter, son-in-law and 3 of her grandchildren were at her home. Only minutes before the attack, they all left and survived.

Shaul Ramzerker and his wife Rachel were born in 1910 in India. They were both living in Mumbai until they decided to make alliyah to Israel with their 7 children in 1973, a year before he was murdered.
That day Rachel and their 3 younger daughters went shopping, and survived.

A patrol of the local police first arrived at the scene of the attack, 2 local policemen from the city: Lazar Cohen and Eli Aish,attempted to engage the terrorists in a firefight but were shot,seriously wounded but survived.

Then a Border Police force and a police patrol unit arrived to the scene and also came under fire from the terrorists. Border Police officers believed the terrorists were at the school, and tried to approach it with smoke grenades.

The terrorists noticed them and opened fire hitting several policemen.
At 08:15 (AM) an IDF infantry unit arrived at the scene. This unit was close to the building where the terrorists were found and exchanged fire with them.

During the gun battle, 2 IDF soldiers , Mordechai Gridi (20) from Ramat Hasharon and Suhail Abzak (20) from Tarshiha were murdered . The terrorists barricaded themselves in the apartment on the top floor of the building and ignored calls directed at them to surrender.

During the immense exchange of fire, a bag of explosives carried by the terrorists exploded - apparently from a bullet hit - and as a result, all 3 terrorists were eliminated .

The results of the massacre were horrific. 2 families of civilians lost two of their sons that day, 2 families lost three, and in the Shitrit family the mother and three of her four children were murdered.
A total of 16 Israelis were murdered in the attack including 8 children.

Archival AP footage from the many funerals that were held in Kiryat Shmona that day.
During the funerals at least 100 people were treated for emotional shock.

Among those injured in the attack were five civilians, seven policemen and three IDF soldiers. Kiryat Shmona residents were under strict lockdown for approximately 10 hours after the attack as there were fears of more terrorists.

It was the first terrorist attack in Israel, in which terrorists infiltrated a town, a long way from the border, without preparing an escape route for themselves.
This mainly shows the intent to murder larger number of civilians , without devoting means and time to escape.

The PFLP terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack the same day , claiming that the attack was carried out by a Palestinian , Iraqi and a Syrian.

On April 21st the Knesset had a special hearing regarding the attack and it’s consequences

Archival AP footage of a protest that was held in front of the Knesset on April 17th 1974, protesting the wave of Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilian communities on the Lebanese border

3. On April 11th 1987 , 34 years ago, a Palestinian terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail inside an Israeli civilian vehicle with Moses family in it as they were passing the Palestinian village of Habala as they were driving from their home in Alfei Menashe to Tel Aviv

On the evening of (then) Saturday, all members of the Moses family,with them a friend of their son Nir, went shopping for the upcoming Passover holiday. When they passed in their car near the Palestinian village of Habala, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the vehicle.

The vehicle immediately became a burning trap , the father Abey Moses lost control and crashed into a light post.
He managed to get his 3 children and their friend Nir out, the children and the father were severely injured from the burns and will be rushed to hospitals later.

Ofra, who was six months pregnant, was sitting in the front seat of the vehicle.
The Molotov cocktail was thrown at the windshield, on the side where she was sitting. Her husband Abey tried to get her out of the vehicle but was unable to open the door on the side where she was.

Ofra (34) and her unborn child were murdered in the car.
Their 5-year-old son Tal was fatally wounded, was hospitalized, and died of his wounds after 3 months.

The Palestinian terrorist was arrested in December of the same year after planing a suicide bombing , he was sentenced to 2 life sentences and additional 72 years.

In 2021, Abey was chosen to light a beacon at the beacon lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl on the upcoming celebrations 73rd Independence Day of the State of Israel.

4. On April 11th 1992 , 29 years ago, a Palestinian terrorist had attacked and murdered Adnan Biadi (41) near Deir Al Balah ,an Israeli Arab salesman from Nazareth, that was just there to pick up a vegetable shipment.

At that day,Adnan arrived in his truck at the Erez checkpoint and from there took a taxi to Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, to buy vegetables as usual.
At noon he was stabbed and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist that was adamant that Adnaan was a Jewish-Israeli.

Adnan, son of Dib and Aisha, was born on September 26, 1950. He grew up in Nazareth and later in Wadi Nisnas, a neighborhood in downtown Haifa.
Adnan married Nazima and they had four children. He became one of the largest vegetable traders in his city.

Adnaan had many friends from all religions, and backgrounds and always believes in Israeli-Palestinian and Jewish-Arab coexistence
He was known in Haifa as a devoted family man and a decent merchant.