A chareidi family was saved from a lynch B’chasdei Hashem on this past motzei Shabbos, in the area of Shar Shechem. The family was passing the gate to Jerusalem’s Old City in a vehicle when Arabs surrounded it, the daily HaMevaser reports.

Rav Shmuel Gantz and his wife spent Shabbos in Yerushalayim. They decided to visit the Kosel on motzei Shabbos before returning home to Bnei Brak. “We left via Dung Gate in our vehicle and we followed the Waze app for instructions” explained R’ Gantz. They traveled via the Shimon HaTzaddik (Wadi Joz) neighborhood of the capital and immediately realized the error, turned around and head out of the area. He explained they followed a sign that said “city center” but they were met with a most unwanted surprise. “We thought following a sign to the city center was safe” explains R’ Gantz, adding it was close to midnight. He is quoted explaining many vehicles were blocking the road.

“A bit after the Rockefeller Museum traffic halted and about 20 border policemen were there directing traffic, which was crawling. They told us to continue so we were comfortable with the route” he added. However, when they got close to Shar Shechem, traffic was at a comple halt. There were no police, and it appears the Arabs were ending their Ramadan event. “All of a sudden we heard a boom and a large rock struck the vehicle. Then another and another…We looked around and we say a hail of rocks directed at the car”.

R’ Gantz explains in a matter of second the window of his door was smashed. One of the attackers sprayed a substance into the vehicle and they felt like they were choking. Then the door was pulled open and they began pulling R’ Gantz outside. B’chasdei Hashem they managed to call police as he was being pulled out. The Arab realized he was being videoed, which slowed him down slightly, buying badly needed time for R’ Gantz. His wife explains “The police dispatcher tried keeping us on the line as he tried to determine our exact location”.

“They stopped trying to pull my husband out of the car as he was covered in blood from the rocks. All covered with blood” she added.

A lone policeman arrived on the scene and a number of others assisted him in pushing the attackers from the vehicle. “I saw the blood and what was going on and I was sure we were going to die” explained Mrs. Gantz after the horrific ordeal, adding “When we saw the Hatzalah vests on the chareidim I knew we had been saved”.

They were transported to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital and released in the morning to heal from their cuts and bruises.

“We don’t understand how we got out of there alive” they told the press, concluding “But it is important for us that the tzibur is aware of these places, especially during Ramadan, a place crawling with thousands of terrorists seeking to injure and kill any Jew they see”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)