|
|
April 5, 2002/Nisan 23, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 29
Israel counts largest death toll to date
JESSICA STEINBERG
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - It was a day of funerals, as Israel buried 14 victims from the March 31 suicide bombing attack in a Haifa restaurant.
Three of the funerals April 1 were from one family, the Rons, who were out having lunch at Matza, their favorite restaurant and a popular Haifa hangout.
Carmit Ron lost her husband, Aviel, her son Ofer, 17, and daughter Anat, 21, in the tremendous blast.
Anat had recently completed her army duty and had just returned from an extended trip to the United States, where she had worked with special needs children.
Ofer was a senior in high school, and would have entered the army during the summer.
A third of the Israeli victims in the 18-month intifada were killed in March: 125 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel. It is the largest number of Israelis ever killed in one month, not including wars.
Carlos Wegman, 50, another Matza regular, was also a victim of the deadly suicide bombing in Haifa.
A native Argentine who immigrated to Israel in 1973, Wegman had two daughters, Dana, 23, and Maya, 21. Maya said she knew her father was there when she watched the report on television and saw her father's car with a sticker that she had once placed on the vehicle.
Wegman had planned to marry his girlfriend this summer.
More than one set of dreams was dashed by the bombing that took place on the March 31 afternoon, during the Passover holiday.
Danielle Mantzal, 22, had planned to study in Rome, where she lived until the age of 10 with her parents, Nurit and Doron. She was at the restaurant for a quick lunch after studying for her university entrance exams.
Orly Ophir, 15, a rising soccer star, was severely wounded during the bombing and died later at the hospital.
When her father, Yossi, first heard about a bombing, he didn't think it could be at Matza because it is owned by Israeli Arabs from Haifa.
But as unlikely as it seemed, a Hamas bomber, Shaadi Tubasi, 22, from a Jenin refugee camp, blew himself up in the restaurant owned by a family of Israeli Arabs.
Tubasi was also an Israeli Arab, on his mother's side. He held an Israeli identity card, according to the police, although he lived in a Palestinian refugee camp.
The Adawi brothers, from Turan, a village in the western Galilee, have owned and operated Matza for the last 17 years. All three brothers were injured in the bombing.
They hadn't hired a security guard for the restaurant because they didn't believe the terror could reach them, Abdullah Adawi said in a newspaper interview.
"Maybe a security guard would have lessened the disaster," Adawi said. "That question will bother me for the rest of my life."
|
