My heart aches. Screaming to the heavens.

Avi Abelow

Click Image to Enlarge. Image created via AI.

My heart aches. Screaming to the heavens.

A few hours ago, while I was out on patrol in the Judean Hills, we were told to be on heightened alert.

There had been a shooting attack in the Binyamin region of Samaria, at a natural spring adjacent to the Jewish community of Neve Tzuf.

Then came the devastating news.

Netanel Shakron, a father of six from Alei Zahav, had been murdered.

And the circumstances make this even more heartbreaking.

On the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Netanel went with his eldest son to the spring to immerse, to purify and sanctify himself in preparation for the holy day.

A jihadi Muslim opened fire.

Netanel was killed.

His son survived.

There is a Jewish tradition that those whose souls are taken during these awesome days leading into Yom Kippur are especially righteous souls.

Netanel went to purify himself.

He returned pure, soul sent straight to the heavens.

And as I patrol these hills today protecting Jewish life, I can’t stop thinking about him, his wife, his six children and especially that son who went with his father to prepare spiritually for Yom Kippur, and came home without him.

This is the reality too much of the world refuses to confront.

While international headlines obsess over the politically charged narrative of “settler violence,” a Jewish father went to a spring in our ancestral homeland before Yom Kippur and was gunned down.

This is terror.

This is jihad.

This is the evil we live with that the world ignores, and instead spreads libelous lies about us.

And Jews living in Judea and Samaria are not an obstacle to peace because we dare to live, pray, raise families and immerse in a spring in our Biblical homeland.

We are home.

On this Yom Kippur, while Jews around the world pray to be sealed in the Book of Life, another Jewish family is mourning a husband and father who was murdered simply while preparing for our holiest day.

May Hashem comfort Netanel’s wife, his six children and his entire family among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

May Hashem protect every soldier standing guard over our people tonight.

May we get rid of this jihadi evil from our land asap and model for the world true morality.

And may the Jewish people have the strength, faith and clarity to stand proudly in our homeland and never surrender to terror.

Netanel Shakron, HY”D.

May God avenge his blood.

May his memory be a blessing.

Am Yisrael Chai!!!