(TJV NEWS) The terrorist who stormed a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur was out on bail for an alleged rape case at the time of the deadly assault, according to UK media reports cited by The Times of Israel. The attacker, 35-year-old Jihad al-Shamie, was fatally shot by police after attempting to break into the Heaton Park Congregation while shouting, “This is what they get for killing our children,” eyewitnesses told ITV News, in what appeared to be the first explicit link between the attack and the Gaza war.

As The Times of Israel reported, Shamie killed two men—local residents Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66—and seriously wounded three others before being stopped. Daulby was hailed as a hero after police said he was apparently killed accidentally by officers while trying to barricade the synagogue doors to protect fellow worshippers.

Shamie, a Syrian-born UK citizen, had a criminal record but was not previously flagged as a terror threat, The Times of Israel wrote. Investigators are probing whether he had been influenced by extremist Islamist ideology and are also reviewing past threats he allegedly made against pro-Israel figures.

In a striking twist, The Times of Israel highlighted that Shamie’s father, Faraj al-Shamie, a trauma surgeon, publicly condemned the attack—but past Facebook posts surfaced showing him praising Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel. In one message from that day, he lauded Hamas gunmen as “God’s men on earth” and declared Israel “will not remain.” Later posts urged Hamas to spare children and the elderly but also celebrated Iran’s missile strikes on Israel during last year’s conflict.

While the family issued a statement expressing “profound shock” and condemning the “heinous” attack, The Times of Israel noted that the father’s earlier praise for Hamas underscores the toxic ideological backdrop fueling such violence.

The attack has rattled the Jewish community in Manchester and beyond. Rabbi Daniel Walker of the Heaton Park Congregation told ITV that congregants, including Daulby, physically blocked Shamie from entering with a knife. “He defended the synagogue with his life,” Walker said, adding that the incident came amid growing fears tied to the Gaza war.

Vigils near the synagogue drew senior political figures, but tensions flared. According to The Times of Israel, UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was jeered by audience members demanding the government ban weekly pro-Palestinian protests. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria later visited the scene, vowing stronger protections for British Jews.

The Times of Israel emphasized that the case highlights not only ongoing security threats to Jewish communities abroad but also the way the October 7 atrocities and the Gaza war continue to reverberate globally, inspiring antisemitic violence far beyond the Middle East.