Rina and Maya Dee are to be buried today as their mother continued to fight for her life in the hospital after being gunned down by Arab terrorists.

The sisters’ mother, Lucy 45, remains in intensive care in Jerusalem after being evacuated by helicopter to Hadassah Medical Center and is undergoing multiple surgeries.

Born in London, the sisters were the children of Rabbi Leo Dee, formerly a senior rabbi at Radlett United Synagogue in Hertfordshire and assistant rabbi in Hendon, north London.

The family relocated to Israel in 2014.

After Shabbat, Rabbi Dee issued a statement saying he felt confident that “justice would be done.”

Referring to the current divisive political atmosphere in Israel that ur enemies sense as weakness, Rabbi Dee said, “We are saddened about the current political tension in Israel which is caused by a lack of trust in its first religious zionist government,”

“Some people think that a religious government will suppress minority rights and become totalitarian,”

He added, “This is not a risk in Israel as religious Jews simply believe in balancing love and justice. For our part, we have felt a warm hug of love from Jews in Israel and beyond and we are confident that justice will be done.”

Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said, “No words can describe the depth of our shock and sadness at the heartbreaking news of the murder by terrorists in Israel of Maya and Rina Dee, daughters of Rebbetzen Lucy, who is in a critical condition and Rabbi Leo Dee, my dear colleagues.

“They were much loved in the Hendon and Radlett communities in the UK as well as in Israel, and well beyond. We pray for a refuah shelema for Rebbetzen Lucy and also for those injured in the terrorist attack yesterday on the promenade in Tel Aviv.”

The family was driving in two cars, with the father in front and his wife and two daughters behind him. Palestinian gunmen chased the car containing the three women forcing it off the road before riddling it with bullets. Some 22 bullet casings were found at the scene.

The sisters’ father turned his car around and returned to the scene as medics quickly arrived. Both sisters died at the scene.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said: “We are saddened to hear about the deaths of two British-Israeli citizens and the serious injuries sustained by a third individual.

“The UK calls for all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions.”

As usual, as with much of the foreign media and governments, the British government communique failed to refer to, or identify, the killers as they continue to cover up, or excuse, Palestinian anti-Semitic incitement and terrorism that has been killing Jews with nauseating regularity for decades.

Barry Shaw,

Israel Institute for Strategic Studies