Tzvika Cohen, a resident of Ma’aleh Adumim, was critically injured in a terror attack in Ma’aleh Adumim in 2016 when a terrorist who worked at the mall in the city attacked him on his head with an axe.

Cohen, now 55, never fully recovered from the attack, and needs an aide to assist him in his day-to-day life. On Tuesday, the day of the 2023 Ma’ale Adumim terror attack, Cohen was at the Ma’ale Adumim community center, where he volunteers several times a week. A middle-aged Palestinian who has worked as a janitor at the community center for years asked Cohen if he would drive his 20-year-old son, who recently began working at the center, to his home in a nearby village as he wasn’t feeling well.

Cohen and his aide dropped the son at the entrance to the village, only minutes away, and returned to the community center.

Meanwhile, the son/terrorist apparently used the opportunity to grab a gun and a knife from his home and returned to Ma’aleh Adumim an hour later to begin his shooting spree.

Cohen’s brother, Moshe, told a Ma’ale Adumim news outlet that Tzika became very agitated when he realized that he unknowingly assisted the terrorist and it caused him to relive his past trauma.

When asked about the terrorist’s father’s employment on Wednesday morning, Mayor Benny Kashriel said that “none of the terrorist’s family members will work in Ma’ale Adumim”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)