Shmuel Mett Hy"d a 21-year-old bochur from England studying at Yeshivas Mir, was murdered in a stabbing attack in the Old City and his friend, Sam Weissbart, was wounded. Police say this was the first terror murder in the Old City in six years.
At 8:30 p.m. last Wednesday night Weissbart, a resident of Monsey, New York, arrived at the David District Station telling police he had been stabbed with a large kitchen knife while passing through the Muslim Quarter not far from Jaffa Gate. The duty officers summoned Magen David Adom paramedics who transported Weissbart in moderate condition to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital, where he underwent abdominal surgery.
Meanwhile police hurried to the site of the attack where they found a second yeshiva student who had also been stabbed in the abdomen. He was rushed in critical condition to Hadassah Ein Karem, but passed away on the operating table.
According to the initial police investigation the two yeshiva students were returning from ma'ariv along Rechov David, the walkway leading from the Kosel Maarovi to Jaffa Gate via the Muslim market, when a young Palestinian attacked them with a long kitchen knife.
Thousands took part in the levaya for Shmuel Eliyohu Mett Hy"d in Jerusalem on Thursday night.
Born in Golders Green to R' Nosson Peretz Mett, who works in education, he came to Eretz Yisroel one year ago and began to study at Yeshivas Mir. His friends describe him as one of the yeshiva's exceptional masmidim. He was recently engaged and was scheduled to marry after Succos. Three of his siblings live in Eretz Yisroel.
The deceased was eulogized by the rosh yeshiva, HaRav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and HaRav Doniel Alter, the son of the Admor of Gur the Pnei Menachem zt"l before being buried at Har Hamenuchos at sunset. The rov of the Kosel, HaRav Shmuel Rabinovitz, expressed his shock over the incident. "During recent years a great many people have [passed through] the marketplaces in the Old City and I believe this is an atypical incident that does not point to any trend. I hope the security cameras lead to the arrest of the attacker in the near future and then it will become clear whether the act was perpetrated by an individual or whether it was organized in some way. In any event the police are making every effort to boost security on the routes to the Kosel Maarovi, although the stabbing did not take place along the regular access routes used by public transportation and vehicles and not in the Jewish Quarter."
