Across divided Jerusalem, a day of grief

JERUSALEM — On different sides of this divided city Friday, grieving Israelis laid to rest their murdered sons while a Palestinian family grieved over the loss of the young man who killed them.

Both Israelis and Palestinians seemed shocked and anxious as a result of Thursday night's bloodshed and the looming certainty of more to come.

Thousands of mourners attended a memorial for the eight Jewish seminary students killed by a Palestinian gunman. In a ceremony broadcast nationwide, the covered bodies of the students, ages 15 to 26, were laid on stretchers outside the library of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva.

Mourners wept and rocked back and forth in rhythmic waves of prayer as a succession of grieving relatives and religious leaders paid tribute.

Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi, wept as he spoke. "Dear families, please know that today's grief is shared and felt by the entire nation who fell as one and whose heart fills with tears over this terrible disaster that has happened to us," he said.

From there each victim was taken in a procession for burial in his home community.

"God chooses the most beautiful flowers for his garden," cried Rivka Moriah during the funeral for her 16-year-old son, Avraham David Moses. "God sees Avraham as an angel, and so we should thank him for the 16 years filled with the privilege of raising him."

Moriah and the youth's father, Naftali Moses, said they tried calling Avraham after hearing about the attack, but began to worry when neither their son nor one of his friends answered their phones. They later learned that Avraham's friend had also been killed.

Israeli authorities identified the lone attacker, who was killed at the scene, as 25-year-old Alaa Abu Dheim, a Palestinian citizen of Israel from East Jerusalem. Police raided the Abu Dheim home in the Jebel Mukaber neighborhood within two hours of the gunman's attack, arresting Abu Dheim's father and six other male family members. The father was released Friday morning, but several other relatives, including Abu Dheim's two brothers, remained in custody.

A banner carrying several flags -- those of the Islamic militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the Palestinian national flag -- hung outside the family's three-story home. The mood was somber rather than celebratory.

"We're in shock," said Eyad Aboul Magd, Abu Dheim's cousin. "We found out about it from the news. There were no signs at all that Alaa would do this."