A BRITISH dad whose wife and daughters were murdered by Hamas terrorists in a horrifying ambush said he’s not interested in revenge.
Rabbi Leo Dee’s family were travelling to the Sea of Galilee for a holiday in April when his wife, Lucy, 48, and two daughters, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were shot dead.
Leo Dee pictured with his five children and wife Lucy before the terror attack
Lucy Dee and her daughters, Rina and Maia, were killed when the gunmen attacked their car in the West Bank on April 7
APThe scene of the April attack where the family’s car was shot at and forced off the road[/caption]
Dee told The Sun that he does not ‘feel anger’ towards their killers
Dee lost three members of his family when a pair of Hamas terrorists riddled his wife’s car with 22 Kalashnikov bullets on April 7 in a horror attack that sent shock waves through Israel.
Maia and Rina were killed at the scene, while his wife died in hospital from her wounds several days later.
Despite tearing his family apart, the father has told The Sun he does not feel “anger” towards the perpetrators.
In a brave interview, Dee said it was a “terrible disaster and tragedy” – but added that he “didn’t lose faith in God”.
And in the wake of Hamas’ brutal and bloody cross-border assault on southern Israel – exactly five months after the murder of his wife and daughters – Dee said he is still not looking for vengeance.
“I don’t feel anger, it’s not something which I generally feel and I don’t feel anger against any of these people at all,” he said.
Recalling the terror attack on his family, who moved to Israel nine years ago, Dee explained the horror and shock of that day.
He had been driving in a separate car with his other two daughters, Karen and Tali, 19 and 17, and and son, Leo, 14, when he heard the news a car had been ambushed by gunmen.
Lucy, Maia and Rina had not been far ahead of them as they drove to the beach for their holiday.
A picture was posted online, Dee said, “and on the back seat, you could clearly see a beach bag… and it was clearly our beach bag and it was covered in blood”.
Thousands of people were shattered by the news of the attack and poured in from all over Israel to mourn the loss of what Dee describes as “three beautiful and clearly harmless ladies”.
He recalled: “We ended up having two funerals, the first one for my two daughters and the second one for my wife a couple of days later.
“We had 10,000 people at the funeral and probably a similar number who came to the shiver, which is seven days of mourning.”
At the time, Dee explained: “It was very unusual for three people to be killed in one attack.
“One person is a personal tragedy. Two is a a family tragedy or local tragedy.
“Three becomes almost a calamity on a national and international scale.”
Soon after the murders, a Hamas spokesman hailed the attack as “retaliation for the crimes committed by Israel”.
Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, later confirmed that the killers – Hassan Qatanani and Moaz Masri – had belonged to the Islamic terror group.
The Israeli Defence Forces hunted down the murderous pair and killed them, along with an operative who helped them escape the scene, Ibrahim Jabr.
Speaking about the escalating war between Israel and Hamas, the rabbi is both heartbroken and horrified by the “holocaust” that was unleashed on his country.
“This is a national level tragedy. I mean, it’s a holocaust that nobody in Israel expected that we would see in our lifetimes.
“It’s what our grandparents went through 80 years ago… we’ve been saying never again for 80 years and it just happened.
“I think the desire on the behalf of the Jewish people and the Israeli people to make sure this really never happens again is now absolute.”
However, Dee still shares a sadness for ordinary Palestinians caught up in the conflict.
“I think that what Hamas achieved in 24 hours was to destroy a lot of the hopes and potential for two million Gazan people.
“They have really wrecked the lives for the Gazan people for the foreseeable future.”
But he still fears the current reality in which a “huge number of terrorists want to see us [Israelis] dead”.
He said: “[The terrorists] have the intention of killing every Jew not just in Israel but all over the world.
“I think somebody put it very accurately when they said if Israel were to put down its weapons today, we would be attacked from our neighbours and be slaughtered in our beds as we have seen.
“If the Palestinians would put down their weapons today, we would have peace.’”
Whatever happens now, Dee is still hopeful for the future of relations between Israel and Palestine.
“I’m certain that there’s a chance of genuine peace,” he said.
The surviving members of the Dee family attend the funerals of Maia and Rina Dee
The family embrace during the funeral which drew in thousands from across Israel
Surviving daughters, Karen and Tali, mourn one of their dead sisters
Leo Dee spoke candidly with The Sun about the murders of his daughters and wife by Hamas terrorists