Netanel Shakron, 49, Killed in Shooting Attack; Leaves Wife and Six Children

Tonight, following Yom Kippur, at 11:00 p.m., Netanel Shakron, 49, a resident of Alei Zahav, will be laid to rest. Shakron was killed yesterday before noon in a shooting attack at a spring near Neve Tzuf. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Merav Shakron, a lecturer at Ariel University, and six children. His eldest son, 16, was beside his father during the attack but was not injured by the attacker’s gunfire. Shakron will be buried in the cemetery in the community where he lived.

The investigation into the attack indicates that the attacker arrived at the Ein Riya spring area, where several Israeli civilians were present at the time. He got out of his vehicle armed with an assault rifle, approached Shakron’s vehicle as Shakron was getting into it after immersing in the spring water, and fired several shots at close range. Shakron was critically wounded.

A soldier who arrived at the scene spotted the attacker and fired at him. The attacker got into his vehicle and fled. Shakron was taken by Magen David Adom to Beilinson Hospital, where his death was pronounced.

About three hours after the attack, in the afternoon, a Duvdevan unit, directed by the Shin Bet, located the attacker at a hospital in Ramallah, where he was being treated for leg wounds. The attacker, a 37-year-old from the village of Bidu, was arrested and transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning. At the same time, the vehicle was located and towed to the investigating unit. It emerged that the attacker had visited the spring a day earlier and “studied the area” in preparation for carrying out an attack.

The Samaria Regional Council said that Shakron worked in high tech as an analyst at the “Hachsharat HaYishuv” company. He had come to the spring with his eldest son to immerse ahead of Yom Kippur. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan eulogized him: “A man of kindness, humble and loving toward others, he was murdered after finishing his immersion with his son ahead of Yom Kippur. The Social Services Department teams of the Samaria Regional Council, together with the community emergency team, are accompanying the family and providing assistance during this difficult time.”

The community of Alei Zahav said: “The Alei Zahav community bows its head and mourns the murder of our beloved friend, Netanel Shakron, of blessed memory. Netanel was a man of kindness, humble, modest, and beloved; a devoted husband to Merav and a devoted father to his six children, the youngest of whom is four. The Shakron family is a deeply rooted, longtime family in the community, an inseparable part of the Alei Zahav community. We are all embracing Merav and the children and will stand by them in this difficult hour and in whatever is needed. May his memory be a blessing.”