On Tuesday evening, as thousands of Israelis were attending the funerals Eyal Yifrah, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel, the three Israeli teenagers found murdered in the West Bank on Monday, I happened to be attending the unrelated funeral of a close friend’s stepfather. As the deceased man’s daughter rose to give a moving eulogy, her first words alluded to those other funerals taking place.

Even a family grieving for the loss of a father, spared a moment to share in the grief of the nation for the loss of the three boys. This was a potent symbol of the extent to which the entire country felt personally about what had happened.

Over the past three weeks Israelis have got to know the three teenagers names and faces. We have seen videos of them playing games with friends and leading songs in their youth movements. And we have got to know the faces and voices of their extraordinarily courageous mothers, as they were interviewed on television, and even flew to Geneva to address the UN Human Rights Council.

Read the article in full at International Business Times.