TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 20 (UPI) ─ The American teen killed in this week’s attacks on Israel by a Palestinian gunman has been identified as 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz.
Schwartz was a resident of Sharon, Mass., who was studying at a yeshiva in Israel for a year between high school and college. It is reported that he was delivering food to Israeli soldiers in the West Bank at the time of the attack.
“Ezra came to Israel not only to study but also to be a part of the vibrant Israeli experience,” the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky, is quoted by WCVB as saying. “This makes his death even more tragic.”
Schwartz is being remembered by family and friends as an energetic young man enthusiastic about his Jewish faith.
“He brought warmth and silliness to every room he entered,” Aliza Abolafia, who knew Schwartz and supervised him as a counselor, told the Times of Israel.
Five people, including Schwartz, died Thursday in what is being called a terrorist attack. Officials report that a Palestinian man with a machine gun opened fire on Schwartz and two others near Alon Svut on Thursday afternoon. He was arrested shortly after losing control of his car and crashing.
The attack follows another that took place earlier that day in Tel Aviv, where two people were stabbed to death. The alleged assailant has also been arrested.
