An Israeli education adviser was among the victims of an Al Qaeda-linked terror attack on a hotel in Mali on Friday.

Shmuel Benalal, 60, a father of three from Tzur Hadassah, near Jerusalem, had come to the country to advise its government on countering religious fundamentalism in schools.

Another Israeli was reportedly among 170 hostages rescued when government troops stormed the Radisson Blu Hotel in the country’s capital Bamako.

At least 19 victims are believed to have killed by terrorists.

Mr Benalal, who was born in Venezuela, headed an international consultancy group Telos and had been principal of a Jewish day school in Mexico.

UJIA chief executive Michael Wegier, writing on Facebook, said that he had first met Mr Benalal at a Jewish education event "in the late 1990s and then again at the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows and many subsequent educational events. A wise and humane man. Such a terrible loss for his family and all who knew him."

A friend Zvi Raviv told Haaretz, “If you are looking for someone who is engaged in tikkun olam, in the fight between the light and forces of darkness, he was the light.”