A family photograph of the Salomon family showing Yosef, Elad and Chaya Salomon. Photo: Salomon family

Thousands of mourners gathered in the central Israeli town of Modi’in on Sunday afternoon to attend the funerals of the three members of the Salomon family murdered on Friday night by a Palestinian terrorist in the West Bank community of Halamish.

Yosef Salomon, 70, and his two children Chaya, 46, and Elad Salomon, 36, were stabbed to death in their home by Omar al-Abed, a 19-year old Palestinian from the nearby village of Kobar, during a shabbat celebration of the birth of a grandson. The family answered the door to al-Abed believing he was one of their shabbat guests.

Yosef Salomon’s wife Tovah, 68, was badly wounded during Abed’s stabbing frenzy. She was rushed to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where she underwent surgery on Saturday morning.

Mrs. Salomon, who managed to attend today’s funeral, was told of the deaths of her husband and children only when she regained consciousness.

Knesset Members and government ministers were among the crowd that heard Rafi Mendel, the husband of one of the surviving Salomon sisters, call for full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.

“I pray to God to give wisdom and understanding to our prime minister,” Mendel said. “It’s time to understand that we need to end the illusions of the Palestinians that they will ever have control over our land. It’s time to impose Jewish sovereignty over all of it.”

Dan Landa, the father-in-law of Elad Salomon, told Israeli news outlet News 360 before the funeral that his daughter’s late husband “was a good person who loved people, he always loved to help, he raised five children with his wife, including twins who were born a year and two months ago.”