On Thursday night, YWN reported the incident where Yeshiva Mekor Chaim was attacked by terrorists. The “Yeshiva Counselor” who killed both terrorists dead told his story exclusively to Haaretz.

Here are excerpts of the article:

Elyakim Kovatch, a 10th-grade counselor at the Mekor Haim yeshiva in Kfar Etzion, says he does not remember the sound of shots from his gun, which killed the two terrorists who broke into the institution Thursday evening. “In my memory, the incident is like a silent movie,” he said Friday.

Kovatch described the attack, which came after six counselors gathered at 9:30 P.M. for a meeting in the small room of the yeshiva’s library, along with the principal of the boarding school, Shmueli Greenberg.

“About three quarters of an hour later, two figures entered the room. They looked like security guards. In the first few seconds they didn’t look suspicious to us. Greenberg even managed to greet them with ‘Good evening,’ and then they came closer, to a distance of about two meters, pulled out knives and a handgun, and in Arabic-accented Hebrew said: ‘Everyone stand back in a line.’

“At this stage, I still thought this was a joke. Only when I saw the counselor Rafael Singer draw a weapon, I got that it’s real. The two terrorists jumped on Singer and stabbed him in the chest. I moved a little backward. It was all a matter of seconds. I loaded a clip in the gun, waited for there to be some distance between Singer and the terrorists, and shot one of them, who was wrestling with him,” Kovatch said.

“The terrorist flew toward the door and was still twitching and trying to get up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shmueli fighting with the other terrorist. He grabbed the terrorist’s hand, which was holding a gun. The terrorist tried to get loose. Again I got some distance between us and shot him too.”

Another counselor in the room, Asa, said they did not realize immediately that the men were militants. “It took us several seconds to come to our senses and then some of the counselors jumped on them,” he said.

When it was all over, the two terrorists “lay sprawled on the floor, bleeding, with knives in their hands,” Kovatch added. “We didn’t wait any longer. We fled outside – both the wounded and also those who were unhurt.”

Kovatch, 24, from Jerusalem, began working at Mekor Haim a year ago. He is a graduate of the capital’s Hakotel hesder yeshiva, and served as a combat soldier in the paratroops.

(Complete story at Haaretz)