Yehuda Guetta, 19, who was critically wounded in the Arab shooting attack at Tapuah junction on Sunday Passes Away

 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta, a student at the Itamar Yeshiva who was critically wounded in the shooting attack at the Tapuah junction earlier this week, succumbed to his wounds at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva on Wednesday evening.

Guetta, a resident of the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem, is survived by his parents, four brothers and two sisters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the death of Yehuda Guetta and said, "I send my deepest condolences to the family of the late Yehuda Guetta. The IDF, the Shin Bet and the security forces are in pursuit of the criminal terrorist. We will reach him very soon and will bring him to justice. These are difficult moments for the Guetta family and the entire people of Israel are with them in their time of grief.”

Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued a statement following the death of Guetta and said, "My heart goes out tonight to the Guetta family, who lost Yehuda tonight, only 19 years old, after he was shot in the criminal attack at Tapuach Junction. The IDF and all the security forces will not rest until they catch the terrorist who murdered Yehuda. My deepest condolences, I wish you would know no more sorrow," Gantz wrote.

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, called for the checkpoints in Judea and Samaria to be restored and for a new community to be established in Samaria in response to the murder.

"A heavy tragedy - not only for the Itamar Yeshiva and the settlement in Samaria - but for the entire State of Israel. Yehuda did not die of cancer. He was murdered because he was a Jew in the Land of Israel. He was killed by a vile murderer, who was instigated and funded by the terrorist Abu Mazen and his terrorist friends from Ramallah. The Israeli government must wake up," Dagan called.

"Our lives are more important than any politics. I am not ready to hear that the IDF will contain the incident. Our lives are not a line in a presentation. The Israeli government must now show leadership. I call on the Prime Minister to immediately approve the establishment of a new community near the Tapuah junction, the scene of the murder, and to double the community of Itamar, where Yehuda had studied. Terrorism must not feel that it is winning. It should be clear that the people of Israel are defeating their vile enemies," he added.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, security forces continued to search for the terrorist suspected of carrying out the shooting attack at Tapuah junction.

Palestinian Arab media reported that the perpetrator is Muntasser Shalbi, from the village of Turmus Aya in the Ramallah area, and that in the last two days the Shin Bet and the IDF have called his family and warned them not to help him.

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