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. a week a after the explosion. 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.”    Yossi 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 - always laughing, and making others laugh. On this Saturday night he went to downtown to meet some friends. He never returned.    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.”    1 2 3 4 5  6 7 8  9 10 11  12 13 14  15