TARGET: ISRAELI CHILDREN

המידע מעודכן לתאריך יולי 2002

An Internet death trap Ofir Rahum, 16 A Fatah activist made contact with Israeli teenager, Ofir Rahum, 16, from Ashkelon, over the Internet. She introduced herself as “Sally,” a Jewish tourist from Morocco, and lured him to join her on a trip to Jerusalem, during which he was murdered. Mona Jaud Awana, 23, was a member of the Shabiba youth organization of the Fatah,the student branch of the Fatah’s Tanzim organization. Mona told her friends in the Tanzim about the email correspondence she had with Ofir, a good-looking and intelligent youth. The Tanzim members instructed her to maintain the contact and to lure the youth to Ramallah. Ofir’s friends relate that Ofir and Mona spoke often on the telephone, and that “Sally” had invited him repeatedly to come to see her in Jerusalem. On Tuesday,one day before the murder, she called Ofir’s mobile phone to finalize the details of their meeting. A friend of Ofir’s happened to be present during the phone call. “She told him to meet her at the central bus station in Jerusalem and that from there she would take him by car to a girlfriend’s house. Afterwards, she said, she would drop him off at the station. He was enthusiastic about the idea.” On Wednesday morning, January 19, 2001, Ofir set out from home, but instead of going to school, got on a Jerusalem-bound bus. After their meeting, Mona Amana stopped her car at a prearranged rendezvous point.Her partner, Tanzim member Hassan Al-Kadi, approached the car armed with a loaded Kalashnikov rifle. Al-Kadi ordered Ofir to get out of the car, with his hands in the air. Ofir refused and grabbed the steering wheel, screaming for help. Al-Kadi shot him in the head, but Ofir continued to cling on to the steering wheel, screaming even louder. Al-Kadi shot him again, this time killing him. Mona, who was later arrested by the Israeli police, said she decided the day the Palestinians carried out the lynching of two Israelis soldiers in Ramallah in late 2000 to abduct an Israeli and execute him. Mona had been present at the Ramallah lynching, and said she was “excited” by what she saw.Soon after, Mona started to make contact with Israelis on the Internet.After her first potential victim refused to accompany her to Ramallah,she made contact with Ofir. After she was indicted for her part in the murder, she declared: “I am proud of what I have done.”
Terror is not blind. A Palestinian sniper opens fire at a baby Shalhevet -Tchiya Pass, 10 months - murdered in her stroller On Monday, March 26, 2001 a Palestinian sniper aimed his rifle and opened fire at 10-month old Shalhevet Pass in Hebron, while she was lying in her stroller. Shalhevet was killed by a bullet to the head. In the afternoon, Yitzhak and Orya Pass took a walk with their daughter Shalhevet from their home in the Beit Hadassah neighborhood to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood where Orya’s parents lived. They heard shots when they reached the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighbor-hood. Yitzhak fell. Orya grabbed Shalhevet in her arms and hid behind a wall, then she saw the blood. She screamed: “The baby has been shot in the head!” Two doctors tried to resuscitate Shalhevet, but failed. She died of the gunshot wound to her head. An investigation conducted at the site revealed that two Palestinian snipers, situated on Abu Sneinah hills overlooking the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, shot Shalhevet. One of the bullets penetrated the baby’s skull, passing through it and then hitting her father’s leg. The investigation revealed that it was clear the snipers aimed directly at the baby’s head.
Brutally beaten on the heads with rocks Kobi Mandel, 13, and Yosef Ishran, 14 Kobi and Yosef were brutally murdered, their heads smashed with rocks at the entrance to a cave. On Monday, May 7, 2001, Kobi and Yosef decided to skip school the next day and hike in an area near their community of Tekoa. Their final destination was the Haritoun cave in the Judean Desert. In the morning, they let a few friends in on their plans. They took food and water with them and set out on their aventure. By late in the evening, when the boys did not return home, their parents began to worry. Then they heard from their sons’ friends for the first time that the boys had gone “on a hike to the cave.” Soon afterwards, an army unit in the area found the bodies. “The identification process was horrible. It was simply impossible to identify the children’s faces. The heads of the two boys had been completely smashed,” said one of those present at the time. Security sources believe the two boys went down to the wadi near Tekoa, where they encountered their murderers. Sensing the danger, they ran for cover in the Haritoun cave. The murderers, apparently two adults, showed no mercy. They killed one of the boys, battering him on the head with rocks. The other boy was similarly killed inside the cave, just a few meters away.
A baby, Killed by a rock Yehuda Shoham, 5 months Yehuda Shoham, five months old, from the community of Shilo, died on June 11, 2000, of wounds he sustained a week earlier when a Palestinian hurled a rock at the family car, in which he sat with his father Benny and mother Bat-Sheva, near Shilo. The father eulogized his baby son: “Pure soul. All he did was laugh and smile at everyone. A babe who harmed no one.”
Terror is not blind. It knows exactly whom it strikes Yuri Gushchim, 18 Eighteen-year-old Yuri Gushchin’s murderers kidnapped and murdered him – solely because he was Jewish. On the morning of July 23, 2001, Yuri went to work at his summer job for a building contractor. When he finished, he went to Jerusalem to “hang around,” as he often did. His parents were used to the fact that Yuri liked to spend a lot of time out of the house, often spending the night at friends’ homes. Yuri’s parents began to worry, however, when the boy’s employer told them he did not show up for work the next morning, and when they heard on the radio that the body of a young Israeli man had been found near Ramallah. Israeli security forces managed to track down the killers, who reconstructed what happened. On the night between July 23 and 24, at two o’clock in the morning, Yuri set out for the Jerusalem Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall and had a cup of coffee at the Rimon cafe. There he met four Palestinians, three of whom were youths from the area of Kalandia, whom he had met before. The four Palestinians, who had been planning to abduct and murder an Israeli for some time, plied Yuri with drink. Afterwards, they asked him to accompany them because they wanted to show him an apartment they said needed to be refurbished. Yuri, in his naivete and perhaps under the influence of the alcohol, agreed. The five youths traveled to Ramallah. There, the leader of the group, Abu Zeida, told his friends in Arabic, “Wait here, we are going to kill him.” Yuri asked, “Where am I?” and his Palestinian acquaintances told him, “You are in Shuafat.” When Abu Zeida returned, the group drove to the Al Birah industrial zone. There they bound Yuri’s hands and feet. Abu Zeida ordered him to turn around, and then shot him in the back of the neck. The investigation of those who took part in the murder revealed that Abu Zeida had initiated the abduction. He offered one of the other youths, a cousin, 2,000 shekels for every Jew he would murder. Yuri had immigrated to Israel with his family in 1991 from Moscow. He studied in elementary school and high school in Israel and six months before his death,transferred to evening school. Yuri was very friendly and was liked by all.
Killed on Mount Gilboa Aliza Malka, 16, killed in a drive-by shooting on Mount Gilboa On August 9, 2001, at about 8:30 at night, terrorists opened fire at a car near Kibbutz Merav on Mount Gilboa. Five girls from the kibbutz were in the car at the time – the driver, who was in national service, and four teenaged girls, aged 14 to 16. The car was riddled by dozens of bullets. Aliza Malka, 16, a charming girl, was killed on the spot. Another passenger was seriously wounded, and two others were lightly hurt. The assailants apparently fled after the shooting to the nearby Jenin area.
Terror is not blind. It knows exactly where it strikes and whose lives it takes Naftali Ben Zion Landzkorn, 13, and Eliran Rozenberg - Zayat, 14 Killed waiting for a school bus On the morning of March 28, 2001, just before seven o’clock, seven teenagers were waiting for a school bus in a gas station near the Neveh Yemin junction, not far from Kfar Saba. They were going to the Bnei Hayil Yeshiva High School in Kedumim. “We were waiting there together, ”related one of the boys,“ when suddenly a man with a black beard came up to us and tried to talk to a couple of my friends. I was standing a bit on the side. Suddenly, I heard an explosion and flew backwards. When I got up, I could see my friends lying on the ground. They were screaming, and full of blood.” Two of the wounded boys died on the spot – Naftali Lanzkron, 13, and Eliran Rozenberg, 14. A helicopter took the other injured boys to a nearby hospital. Among the wounded were Shay Inger, 13, who was very seriously wounded; Natanel Hershkowitz, 16, moderately wounded in his eye and shoulder; and Raphael Zommer, 15, and Hananel Touito, 12, who were lightly hurt. Naftali Lanzkron had celebrated his bar mitzva just two and half months before he was killed. He was the youngest of 10 children – a goodnatured boy and excellent athlete. On the evening before the attack, he told his brother Yehuda, “Tomorrow there will be a terror attack on my school bus.” His brother dismissed his fears, calling the whole thing “nonsense.” Eliran Rozenberg-Zayat did not know on the morning of his death that a surprise was waiting for him at the yeshiva – a certificate of excellence for his academic achievements. His teacher had prepared the certificate and told Eliran’s parents about it, asking them to keep it a secret so they could surprise the boy at school.
Grandson of Holocaust survivors Ronen Landau, 17 The kids playing ball were saved, Ronen was shot dead On July 26, 2001, at 10:30 at night, Palestinian terrorists set up an ambush from the village of Al Jib, under the Palestinian Authority’s civil control. Two Palestinian snipers situated themselves on a hill over-looking the Jerusalem-Givat Ze’ev highway. They first took shots at the soccer field of the community of Givon, where six Israeli boys were playing soccer. The terrorists shot extensively, but fortunately did not hit anyone. The boys fled. Then the terrorists aimed their weapons at an Israeli car passing on the highway. The shots hit the car in which Shmuel Landau was traveling with his 17-year-old son Ronen. Ronen was critically wounded by a bullet to the head, and died a short time later. Ronen took an interest in numerous subjects. “He had the soul of a scientist, ”his friends said. His father said Ronen loved animals, especially his two dogs – Sheleg and Icy.“ On the night of the murder, when I returned home without Ronen, they immediately understood. They whined and barked all night.” Ronen’s paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors who lost their families in Europe. They married on the way to Israel, where they raised a family. Palestinian Terrorists forced them to bury their beloved grandson.
Murder on the way home from school Menashe Meni Regev, 14, and Shoshana Rachel Ben Yishai, 16 Sunday, November 4, 2001, 3:45 in the afternoon, the French Hill junction in Jerusalem: Egged bus no. 25 slowly approaches the intersection. Dozens of pupils on their way home from school are on the bus. Among them are no fewer than 35 girls from the Beit Shulamit Religious High School located in Jerusalem’s Neveh Yaakov neighborhood. A Palestinian terrorist from Hebron is standing on the sidewalk. He waits for the bus to stop at a traffic light, pulls out a M16 automatic rifle and sprays the bus at point-black range. Two children are killed on the spot – Shoshana (Shoshi) Ben Yishai, 16, and Meni Regev, 14. Twenty-five other passengers – mostly children – are wounded. Eleven Beit Shulamit students were hurt in the attack, and Shoshana Ben Yishai was killed. The last lesson of the day for Shoshana’s eleventh-grade class was in Jewish philosophy. The subject was man’s evil inclination and the way it can be overcome. “Suddenly Shoshi stood up and asked, ‘How does one grapple with the evil inclination, because everyone has a little evil inside them,’” recalls the teacher. “I said that was a very difficult question and we would devote a broader discussion to the topic in the coming classes. But Shoshi, a lovely, caring girl, didn’t have any more classes.” Meni Regev studied at Brandt Religious School in Neve Yaakov. “Meni was a new student in the school,” related his teacher, “but he had already taken the responsibility of organizing the charity fund to buy school supplies for needy students. Everyone liked him,” said his friends. Not all the students of the school participated in their friend’s funeral. “I couldn’t go,” recalled one. “I just couldn’t watch them putting Meni in the ground.” A few days after the murder, a number of the Beit Shulamit students were afraid to get on the bus that took them home; the school’s had to ride the bus with them to give them strength.
Terror is not blind. It knows exactly whom it is killing Yael Ohana, 11 A handicapped girl murdered in her own home On February 6, 2002, at 9:10 p.m., two Palestinian terrorists infiltrated into the community of Hamra, in the Jordan Valley, firing their automatic weapons in every direction. One of the terrorists burst into the home of the Ohana family. Miri Ohana and her 11-year-old handicapped daughter Yael were home at the time. When an Israeli army sniper started shooting at the terrorist, the infiltrator shot and killed Yael and her mother. Yael, the family’s youngest, studied at a special school in Jerusalem. “Why, what harm did she every do,” cried Yael’s father at his daughter’s funeral.
Terror is not blind.It knows exactly whom it has come to kill Karen Shatsky, 14, Nehemia Amar 15, and Rachel Gila Thaler, 16: Murder in the pizzeria On Saturday night, February 16, 2002, the Karnei Shomron shopping mall was filled with local teenagers – just as it is every Saturday night. They come to be with their friends and eat at one of the mall’s restaurants. Several of these teenagers were at the pizzeria, when just after 7:30 in the evening, a suicide bomber walked inside. A few minutes later, he blew himself up. Karen Shatsky and Nehemia Amar were killed immediately. Rachel Thaler died 11 days later. Rachel was hospitalized in critical condition, pieces of shrapnel lodged in her brain, at the Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva. Her brother Leor, 14, was also wounded in the attack and listed in serious condition. Their mother Janet rushed – sobbing and terrified – from one hospital to another to care for her two severely wounded children. It was not possible to move Liran to the hospital in Petah Tikva because his condition was so serious. Four of the wounded girls were in the same 9th grade class in Ulpana Lehava in Kedumim. They had been spending the Sabbath together and at the end of the day found themselves lying next to each other in the hospital’s intensive care unit. Moriah, one of the girls, wrote a note from her hospital bed to her friend Shira: “To Shira – I think about you all the time. Please forgive me if you think this happened because of me. With much love, Moriah.” Moriah blamed herself because she had suggested they all go eat pizza. When she heard that her friend Karen Shatsky, who she sat next to in class, had been killed, she sobbed and asked to be taken to her funeral – even if she had to be wheeled there in her hospital bed. Karan, 14, was born in Israel to parents who moved to Israel from the United States. She was the family’s youngest, having three older sisters and two older brothers. Karen was a student at Ulpanat Lehava in Kedumim. All her friends described her as very sociable and clever, a girl radiating a unique inner beauty. Nachemya Amar, 15, was a student at the Bnei Hayil Yeshiva High School in Kedumim. He was a diligent student and his friends admired him and loved his sense of humor. “He was a goodnatured, modest and innocent boy with a wonderful sense of humor,” said his father. “Now we don’t know who will make us laugh...” Rachel Thaler, 16, died in the hospital 11 days after the attack. Rachel had celebrated her 16th birthday a month earlier and her friends filled her room with 500 balloons. “She was the loveliest, most generous and happiest girl in the world and the terrorist cut short her happy life”, her friends said.
A birthday party drowned in blood - Seven boys killed On December 1, 2001, at 12:34 a.m., two suicide bombers standing 30 meters apart blew themselves up on Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall. Their aim was to kill as many young people crowding the city’s entertainment center on that Saturday night as possible. One of the bombers detonated his device in front of the popular Rimon cafe, which was filled with customers. The second blew up not far away, near Zion square. Twenty minutes later, a car bomb also exploded at a nearby location, apparently intended to target rescue workers. “There were many people there. We were standing there, laughing, hugging and singing, ”recalled one of the youths present. “Suddenly there was an explosion, and in a moment the place was filled with bodies.” “An entire group of boys was lying on the pavement,” another witness said. “Their faces were blackened from the blast. They all looked dead.” Eleven young men were killed in that terror attack, and over 150 wounded, 11 seriously and 40 moderately. Most were teenagers.
Assaf Avitan and Golan Turgeman, both 15 neighbors in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, went out together to have a good time and were killed together in the pedestrian mall blast. On Saturday night, Assaf went bowling in Jerusalem. From there he went with a few friends to the pedestrian mall to celebrate the birthday of twins from the neighborhood, Eran and Avi Mizrahi. There he met Golan. They were standing in the middle of the mall when the blast struck. Assaf’s parents searched frantically for their son in the city’s hospitals, as did Golan’s parents. Unable to find their names among the lists of the injured, they went to the Abu Kabir Forensic Medicine Institute in Tel Aviv, where they met and were told that their sons were dead. Golan Turgeman was a 10th grade student in Kiryat Hinuch north in Pisgat Ze’ev. Assaf studied in the ORT Nevi’im high school in midtown Jerusalem. Their friends, who loved them, called them the “neighborhood clowns,” because they were always happy and joking.
Adam Weinstein, 14, from the Givon Hadasha community just north of Jerusalem, studied in junior high school in Givat Ze’ev. He loved to stay home and work on his computer, and only recently started going downtown on Saturday nights with friends.
Ya'akov Israel Danino, 17 of Jerusalem, planned to complete his matriculation certificate before joining the army. On this particular Saturday night he was spending time with a friend on the popular pedestrian mall. Ya’akov, a young man with a kind heart, searched for life’s spiritual meaning.
Moshe Yedid Levi, 19 lived in Gilo and was studying in a post-high school program. He planned to enter the army in a year’s time. On this particular night he went with a friend and his cousin Avihu for pizza in the center of town. They ordered the pizza and were told to come back and pick it up in 15 minutes. Then the first explosion went off. Moshe heard the blast and screamed “Avihu are you all right?” Then the second explosion occurred and instantly killed Moshe and his friend, Nir. Moshe’s cousin, Avihu, was moderately wounded.
Ido Cohen, 17, died of his wounds at a Jerusalem hospital. Ido was critically injured and the doctors were unable to save his life. “He was a wonderful, charming boy with a heart of gold,” his friends recalled. “He had a lovely voice and we loved to hear him sing.”
Yosi Elezra, 19, was in his last year of studies at the ORT School in Jerusalem. The army agreed to push off his service so he could complete his studies. Yossi, handsome and talented, worked in a sporting goods store. Friends remember his sense of humor -loving to laugh, and making others laugh. On this Saturday night he went to the center of town to meet some friends. He never returned.
Shot on the way to a memorial for terror victims Itamar Yefet, 18 Shot in the head on the way to a memorial for terror victims Itamar Yefet, 18, from the community of Netzer Hazani, was shot and killed on November 21, 2000 at the Gush Katif junction. Itamar was traveling together with friends, students at the Atzmona preparatory academy in Gush Katif, to Kfar Darom, to participate in a special evening held in memory of three people killed in a terror attack just the day before at almost the exact same spot. Itamar was born in the community of Netzer Hazani and studied at the Navat Katif elementary school in Neveh Dekalim, and at the yeshiva high school in Kfar Maimon. “He was a wonderful, good-looking fellow,” his friends said. “He loved the ocean and was the Gush Katif surfing champion.”