Rabbi Amos Guetta, a well-known rabbi in Netanya in his 70s, was stabbed to death today (Wednesday) in the yeshiva where he taught in the city. It is suspected that the rabbi’s student, who knew him and was there as part of a rehabilitation program, stabbed him, fled the scene and was later captured by the forces.
According to sources familiar with the details, the suspect in the stabbing is apparently a mentally unstable person who knew the rabbi, was part of his circle, and was even in a rehabilitation program there, our reporter Milan Amar reported.
Senior medic in the MDA motorcycle unit, Maor Brantz, and MDA medic Yonatan Yankelevich, said: “We saw the injured man unconscious, without a pulse not breathing, with serious stab wounds to his body. We gave him life-saving medical treatment, which included prolonged CPR, and evacuated him to the hospital in critical condition, and we are fighting for his life.”
Netanya Mayor Avi Salama paid tribute to him: “With great sadness and great pain, I received the bitter news of the passing of the holy Kabbalist, Rabbi Amos Guetta, a tremendous scholar, who was a great light and pillar of Torah and kindness in the city. For many years, he illuminated the path of tens of thousands of residents, brought hearts closer, strengthened souls, and was a source of advice, blessing, and salvation for families in Israel and around the world.”
The Chief Rabbi of Israel and President of the Chief Rabbinate Council, Rabbi Kalman Meir Bar, described his great contribution to the city of Netanya: “For decades of spiritual leadership, he served as a beacon and a pillar of strength for the multitudes of the city’s residents, who flocked to his door every day to seek blessings, wise advice, and resourcefulness. He was privileged to combine the simple and the secret, and to combine immense and extraordinary knowledge of the Torah’s mysteries with great acts of kindness and ardent and vibrant worship of God.”
This incident joins a string of serious bloodshed that occurred within just a short hour: In Bigor, a 21-year-old man who was found unconscious in a vehicle was
shot to death, and in Shfaram, a 24-year-old man who was injured in another shooting incidentwas pronounced dead . In both cases, MDA teams arriving at the scenes were forced to declare the injured dead.