The bodies of three slain Jewish teenagers were wrapped in Israeli flags and laid to rest side by side Tuesday, as Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel and Israeli leaders vowed revenge.
The mother of murdered 16-year-old Naftali Fraenkel, a dual Israeli-US citizen with Brooklyn ties, wept in her eulogy, “Rest in peace, my child. We will learn to sing without you.”
The dad of 19-year-old Eyal Yifrah added of his murdered son, “Your siblings want you near them . . . [but] Mom said that you are now right by God’s side. She asked you to whisper to God, ask Him to give her strength, to give all of us strength.”
The bodies of Yifrah, Fraenkel and 16-year-old Gilad Shaar were discovered partially buried in a West Bank field Monday, nearly three weeks after they were abducted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday that their killers would be caught.
“We won’t remain silent and won’t stop until we reach every last one of them,” he said, blaming the terror group Hamas for the slayings.
“We will weaken Hamas in the West Bank and stop Gaza rockets. We will expand our operation as necessary,” he said.
Speaking at the boys’ funeral, Netanyahu said the day had “spontaneously become a national day of mourning.’’
Hours before the funeral, Israel launched rockets at the Gaza Strip, and soldiers in Jenin fatally shot a 20-year-old Palestinian man they said had a grenade. Palestinian militants responded with their own rocket fire, including launching five attacks just after the funerals.
Israel’s security cabinet huddled late Monday to try to map out a plan of retaliation for the boys’ deaths, but an agreement could not be reached, officials said.
At a Tuesday night memorial service on the Upper West Side, Sen. Charles Schumer suggested Palestinians break ties with Hamas.
“This ought to be a lesson to the nations of the world, including our own, that the Palestinian Authority made a terrible mistake in linking up with terrorists,” Schumer said.
With Post Wire Services