Security Guard Killed in Ariel Terror Attack Laid to Rest

YERUSHALAYIM – Vyacheslav Golev Hy’d, the 23-year-old security guard killed in Friday’s terrorist attack in Ariel, was laid to rest Sunday in his hometown of Beit Shemesh as hundreds of mourners participated.

Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch called Golev a hero who defended the Ariel community “like a brick wall.”

She said the Golev family, who immigrated to Israel from Russia, were “the story of Beit Shemesh and of Israel. With the story of your lives you brought together the story of Israel and of aliyah. You are the mosaic of Israel.”

Golev’s cousin, Vladimir, said: “You had such a good, big heart. We’ll tell our children and grandchildren about you, and you’ll be a role model for them.”

Daniel Zilbergstein, one of Golev’s childhood friends, said, “I never believed this would happen to a friend, someone so close to me.”

“He always defended everyone, whether his siblings, friends, everyone he knew, if something happened, he was always the first to defend them,” he told Channel 12.

Golev was stationed at a security booth at the entrance to Ariel when two Palestinian terrorists opened fire at him. He shielded another security guard who was stationed with him from the bullets. She was identified as Victoria Fligelman from Ashkelon. She was not harmed in the attack.

Golev was a former student at Ariel University. He is survived by his parents and seven siblings.

Ashkelon Mayor Tomer Glam said that the city’s welfare and social services department will stand by Fligelman and her family.

IDF troops and counterterrorism officers arrested two suspects in the attack. They were detained in the nearby Palestinian town of Qarawat Bani Hassan. The two did not put up any resistance and both their weapons were also seized in the raid.

They were taken in by the Shin Bet security agency for further questioning.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects, identified as 19-year-old Yahyah Maree and 20-year-old Yousef A’ssi, were not sent by any terrorist groups, but one of them had ties to Hamas.

Both men are barred from entering Israel, and one of them has previously served time in an Israeli prison. They were arrested at their homes, along with several relatives suspected of aiding them in carrying out the attack.

They arrived at the entrance to Ariel in a blue Suzuki with Israeli license plates, which apparently belonged in the past to a car that was taken off the road. The terrorists’ vehicle was later found after being set on fire and abandoned.

The two pulled up at the gate armed with Carl Gustav submachine guns and opened fire at the guard shack. They then got out of the vehicle and shot Golev from point-blank range.

Golev shielded Fligelman with his body and took three of at least ten bullets fired, killing him on the spot.
One of the terrorists then ran back to the car, made a U-turn and picked up the other assailant, who was waiting for him on the other side of the road. This latest attack in Ariel joins a spate of Islamist terrorist attacks in Israeli cities since late March which claimed the lives of 15 Israelis, Hy”d.