Father of British-Israeli sisters killed in West Bank asks ‘how will I explain to their mother what has happened to our two precious gifts?’

The father of two British-Israeli sisters shot dead in the occupied West Bank has broken down at their funeral as he paid tribute to his “beautiful angels” while their grief-stricken siblings sobbed as they clutched their wrapped bodies.

Maia and Rina Dee, reportedly aged 20 and 15 respectively, were killed when their car was attacked by Palestinian assailants near an Israeli settlement on Friday.

Their 45-year-old mother, Lucy Dee, was seriously wounded and is in a coma, while their father, Rabbi Leo Dee, witnessed the attack from a separate vehicle following behind and was unharmed.

Rabbi Dee, who has three other children, spoke of his hopes that his wife would come out of her coma and asked: “How will I explain to Lucy what has happened to our two precious gifts?”

In tribute to “beautiful and perfect” Maia at a cemetery in the Jewish settlement of Kfar Etzion in the West Bank, the rabbi said: “You were always an angel and now you will always be our guardian angel.”

He also said: “You wanted to sign up for another year of national service, where you could really make a difference. But mummy and I wanted you to start your studies and maybe meet a special boy.

“But you insisted that girls like you always do two years of volunteering so we waited to see what and where this would be.”

Then turning to his “beautiful and darling” Rina, he said: “You were such a great student. Such a great friend.”

“You dreamt of travelling the world, now you are travelling to heaven.”

At the al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, hundreds of Palestinians prayed on Sunday.

Hundreds of Jewish people also visited the holy site under heavy police guard as Palestinians protested, directing whistles and religious chants at them. But the episode generally passed off without incident.

The compound – sacred to both Muslims and Jews – has been at the centre of a security crisis which erupted last Wednesday when Israeli police raided the mosque to clear what they said were youths barricaded inside armed with rocks and fireworks.

Ron Dermer, who is Israel’s strategic affairs minister, has defended the police’s actions, telling Sky News: “The people who had barricaded themselves into the al Aqsa mosque were going to attack those people outside and they were violent.

“The police basically were forced to go in to try to remove them to allow the Muslims who were praying in the morning to go into the mosque.”

Meanwhile, a north London rabbi says his community is feeling a “sense of pain and grief” after the West Bank killings.

Rabbi Dee was the senior rabbi at Radlett United Synagogue in Hertfordshire from 2011-2014 and assistant rabbi in Hendon, north London, from 2008-2011.

Mordechai Ginsbury, senior rabbi at Hendon United Synagogue, who has kept in contact with the family since they moved back to Israel in 2014, said he was feeling “absolute devastation, pain, grief and shock” following the tragedy.

He said the Dees are the “nicest, loveliest people” and he was “so, so sorry”.

Rabbi Ginsbury added: “To think that in a few moments, so senselessly and painfully, this has happened, such a tragic loss of life, of goodness, is just devastating.”

Recalling the time they spent in the UK, Rabbi Ginsbury said: “They used to come to us at home. They were just a delightful family, full of commitment, vigour, passion, energy, and they did wonderful things for us in the community.”

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He said he spoke to Rabbi Dee last night and “one of the things that is sustaining him is the blanket of warmth and love which is enveloping them within Israel and around the world”.

Rabbi Ginsbury said he was planning to hold a service of psalms and prayers on Sunday evening for people who “want to express their sense of pain, grief and solidarity with the Dees and with all the good and positive values that we, as Jewish people, stand for across the world and in Israel”.

The shooting near the Hamra settlement – about 30 miles north of Jerusalem – came after Israel launched retaliatory air strikes at Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.