A Hendon rabbi has said his “family of seven is now a family of four” after his wife and two daughters were killed in an attack.

Rabbi Leo Dee, who reportedly used to serve as assistant rabbi at Hendon United Synagogue in Raleigh Close, is mourning another family member a day after the funeral of his daughters Rina, 15, and Maia, 20.

His British-Israeli wife was pronounced dead three days their children’s death in an  attack near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

All were described as “idealistic, pure-hearted and kind”.

The senior rabbi at Radlett United Synagogue in Hertfordshire told a press conference that his daughters were killed by 20 bullets from a Kalashnikov rifle and his wife Lucy was shot twice.

Brent & Kilburn Times: Mourners at the funeral of the two British-Israeli sistersMourners at the funeral of the two British-Israeli sisters (Image: Ohad Zwigenberg/ PA)

He said he had been informed of an attack and called his family before realising he had received a missed call from his daughter Maia.

He said at the press conference: “I hadn’t noticed it ring, I hadn’t picked up the phone, the feeling she called me during the attack and I wasn’t able to speak to her will come back and haunt me for a while.”

He said that he saw a photograph on Instagram of his car with a bullet hole in it, with the family’s suitcases with blood on them, and drove “like a lunatic” to the scene.

He said that he was able to identify his daughter Maia at the scene after police produced her identity card, and he then drove to the hospital where his wife had been taken.

He said: “I went numb. I didn’t cry yet, I was highly rational.

“I drove another hour and a half to the hospital.

“Lucy had had two bullets – one through the brain stem and one lodged at the top of her spine.

“There was an operation. There was reason for hope. But alas our family of seven is now a family of four.”

Rabbi Dee described his wife and daughters as “three beautiful innocent young ladies in the prime of their lives” and urged people to post images of the Israeli flag on social media in their memory.

Mrs Dee, 45, was seriously injured in the attack on their car near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Friday and on Monday, Israel’s Hadassah hospital announced that she had died.

The three family members were among six people caught up in the attack carried out by Palestinian assailants.

The family lived in the Efrat settlement, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, according to the settlement’s mayor, Oded Revivi.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the British Jewish community have expressed their condolences to the family.

Mr Netanyahu posted on Twitter: “On behalf of all the citizens of Israel, I send my heartfelt condolences to the Dee family on the death of the mother of the family, the late Leah (Lucy), who was murdered in the severe attack in the Bekaa last Friday, along with her two daughters Maya and the late Rina.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews posted: “Our hearts go out to the Dee family at the terrible news that Lucy Dee has now also passed away after the Palestinian terror attack on Friday that killed two of her daughters, Maia and Rina.

“May their memories be for eternal blessing.”