Moshiko Harush, who was an eyewitness to the deadly attack in Jerusalem last Thursday in which Rabbi Elimelech Wasserman, Hannah Ifergen z"l and Livia Dickman z"l, and Yuval Doron Castleman z"l was also killed by accidental gunfire, described to Israel Hayom the sequence of events that led to Castleman's tragic death.
Harush said: "I was on my way to work, riding behind Yuval. The terrorists stopped and started shooting all over the station. Yuval stopped his car and motioned for me with his hand to run away. He strove for contact and went into the fire. Yuval saw everything and left without hesitation. Without him, many more people would have been murdered. I saw that he was neutralizing the terrorist who was close to the car because they were back in their car."
Harush went on to describe the moments of the attack: "At that point, the soldiers came from the direction of the central bus station. They shot the terrorists and Yuval was in the firing zone. I think he was hit by both the fire of one of the terrorists and the soldiers. The soldiers neutralized the terrorist who was near the station and also hit Yuval. He got down on his knees and shouted: 'Don't shoot, I'm Jewish.'"
"At that point, there was fire in the air and the soldiers were 10-20 meters from Yuval. There was a distance between him and the soldiers amid the chaos and commotion. This is a difficult, frightening and unfortunate event. Yuval wasn't supposed to be killed like that. He was on his way to work and saved us all. Yuval saw everything that was happening and didn't think twice. He's just a hero."
Moshe, Yuval's father, spoke about his feelings following the tragic incident in which his son was killed after trying to save lives. "The soldiers were given weapons and I don't know how they were briefed, they had no idea, the clearest rules, rules of engagement, reasonable logic. How can you say that someone suspects someone of being a terrorist if a second earlier he shot the terrorist in the head."
Moshe, father of Yuval Doron Castleman z"l. "The soldiers had no idea about the rules of engagement", photo: Michel Dot Com
Regarding Prime Minister Netanyahu's remarks about the incident, "This is life," the father said: "The prime minister spoke without knowing what happened and it must not happen, and in a certain sense he also damaged my son's memory and it was not connected to reality. The incident ends and then a soldier comes and shoots him – it's not a price to pay."
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