Funeral of British-Israeli sisters killed in shooting held in West Bank

Maia and Rina Dee remembered as beautiful, smart and popular

Relatives at the funeral of British-Israeli sisters Rina and Maya Dee at the Kfar Etzion settlement cemetery in the occupied West Bank. AFP

The funeral of two British-Israeli sisters, Maia and Rina Dee, who were killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank, was held on Sunday.

Mourners gathered at a cemetery in the Kfar Etzion settlement, where the family lived.

The sisters, aged 20 and 15, were shot while travelling from their home in the Efrat settlement to Tiberias.

Their mother, Leah, was seriously injured in the attack and is in a coma. Israeli media blamed suspected Palestinian gunmen.

At the funeral, their father, Rabbi Leo Dee, who witnessed the attack from a separate vehicle, embraced the bodies of his daughters. “May we and no one else in the whole world ever know so much sorrow. Amen,” he said.

The family was surrounded by mourners, many of them teenagers who were friends of the sisters. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was among the mourners.

Maia was volunteering for national service in a high school and was described as “wonderful” by her father, while Rina was “beautiful, fun, very smart, top grades in every subject, very popular with friends and sporty”, he said.

He spoke of his hope that his wife would recover from her injuries.

The family had moved from London to the West Bank nine years ago.

Mr Dee, who was formerly a rabbi in Radlett, Hertfordshire, and an assistant rabbi in Hendon, north London, described the “nightmares” he had experienced since the shooting.

Mordechai Ginsbury, senior rabbi at Hendon United Synagogue, who had been in touch with the family since their move to Israel, said he was feeling “devastation, pain, grief and shock”.

The attack came amid high levels of violence and tension in the region, with rockets fired from Lebanon and Syria towards Israel and Palestinian attacks killing three people in the West Bank and Israel.

Over 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, according to a tally by the Associated Press, with at least half affiliated with militant groups.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed 19 people in that time.