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A student at the Jerusalem yeshiva where eight people were killed in a terrorist attack Thursday evening shot the gunman who opened fire inside the religious school's crowded library, neutralizing him before a soldier killed him with an automatic rifle.
Yitzhak Dadon said he climbed onto the roof of a nearby building, armed with a rifle, and waited for the gunman to emerge.
"He came out of the library spraying automatic fire ... the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head," he said.
Witnesses described a terrifying scene during the shooting, with students jumping out the windows of the building to escape.
Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, entered the library after the attack. "The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood. The students were in class at the time of the attack," he said. "The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood."
The director of the yeshiva, Rabbi David Simchon, vowed Thursday that the terror attack would not undermine his or his students' religious beliefs.
"No terrorist will succeed in stopping our faith, our values, the justice of our cause or what we teach her at the yeshiva," he said. "I think the terrorists knew that this was Rosh Hodesh Adar, which is a [time of] great joy. I don't know if they directed themselves toward our celebration."
Simchon said the students had been preparing a celebration for the new month on the Jewish calendar, Adar, which includes the holiday of Purim.
"We were planning to have a Purim party here tonight and instead we had a massacre," Simchon told Channel 2 television.
"They wanted to bring an end to our happiness," he said. "The succeeded in ending this evening for us, but they will not destroy our faith or the justice of our cause."
Ariel, a student at the yeshiva, said he initially thought the gunfire was sounds from fireworks for Purim.
"I at first thought it was the sound of Purim firecrackers," he said. "We ran to one of the rooms, because we couldn't reach the exit. We brought some 20 guys into one of the study rooms, and blocked the door with two tables."
"We heard the sound of nonstop gunfire and guys' screaming," he continued. "We were afraid the terrorist would come into the room."
"The fear was terrible," said Ariel. "We heard an exchange of fire, and the guy [who killed the terrorist] came and confirmed the area was clear. We understood we could leave. The scene was difficult."
Michael, another student, said he saw a terrorist enter the complex, and fire for some 10 minutes. "He fired 500-600 bullets," he said, adding that most of those hurt were high school age.
"There was a lot of gunfire and hysteria," a woman who lives across the street from the school told Israel Radio.
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar led a prayer session at the yeshiva after the shooting. Students huddled together, and many were sobbing uncontrollably.
The Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe quarter, at the entrance to Jerusalem, is a well-known center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the settlement movement in the West Bank.
The yeshiva, which enrolls close to 1,000 students, is widely recognized as the flagship institution of the Religious Zionist movement. The yeshiva was headed for many years by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook, the son of the noted rabbinic scholar Avraham Hacohen Kook.
Following Zvi Yehuda Hacohen's passing in 1981, he was succeeded in the yeshiva was led by Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who would also serve as chief rabbi of Israel. Shapira, who died last year, was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Ya'akov Shapira.
Through the years, many of the yeshiva graduates became rabbis who also assumed leadership positions at other yeshivas. The graduates include former MK Haim Druckman, who was chief of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva; Rabbi Zalman Melamed, the chief rabbi of the settlement of Beit El and the head of the Beit El yeshiva; and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner.
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· Mercaz Harav - the flagship of national-religious yeshivas
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