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The Terror Attack at the Maza Restaurant in Haifa
Murder during the Passover Holiday
On Sunday, March 31,2002, during the Passover holiday when people in
Israel like to take family trips, a terrorist entered the Maza restaurant in Haifa.
The restaurant is managed by an Arab-Israeli family and most of the
customers are Jews. It was 2:45 in the afternoon and the restaurant was
crowded with men, women and children.
Lives of innocent diners were brutally terminated and forever changed by a
suicide bomber.
Fifteen people were killed in the blast; five of them children, and 30 people
were wounded, including the manager of the restaurant. Among those killed
was an Arab waiter, a relative of the manager.
Among the Israeli families affected by the terror attack, two – Koren and Ron
– were almost completely destroyed. In both,the father and two children were
killed, leaving a bereaved mother, bereft of her entire family.
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Shimon Koren went to the restaurant with his two sons,
Gal, 15 and Ran, 18
Their mother Rachel decided not to join them, and remained at
home. They had just finished their meal when Shimon got up to pay and the
terrorist blew himself up, killing Shimon and his two sons.
Gal, who was in the 9th grade at the Reali School in Haifa had a special talent
for art. He loved to draw and amazed his friends by creating pieces of art out
of “nothing. ”A friend related that Gal was not at all afraid of the security
situation.On the contrary.“There were times when his parents didn’t allow
him to go places because of the fear of terror attacks,and he would ask me:
‘Why? What can happen?’”
Gal volunteered to help children with cerebral palsy and worked in their
special school, “Ofakim,” every week. The students, Jews and Arabs, sent
touching condolence letters to Rachel.
Ran, who was especially gifted with computers, was in the 12th grade at the
Beit Biram School, and was to have graduated this year. His friends tell about
a very sociable young man, always smiling, who loved spORTs and went
everywhere on his skateboard. He had just started learning how to drive a car,
in preparation for “real life.”
During the few years that his family resided in England on official state
business, Ran mastered English. The boys studied at private Jewish schools,
which resulted in lasting friendships with their classmates. Those friends called
to express shock and pain over the murder of their friends.
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The entire Ron family had come to the restaurant as part of an outing on the
holiday – the father Aviel, the mother Carmit, the 21-year old daughter Anat,
who was about to start her academic studies at Haifa University in
Occupational therapy, and the son
Ofer, 17years old. Only Carmit
survived.
Ofer was in the 12th grade at the Wizo Canada High School in Haifa,majoring
in architecture. He dreamed of being an architect, like his grandfather had
been.His graduation project in architecture was the design of a shop for sweets
that Ofer named “Sweetness,” a place intended to be warm and inviting.
Ofer was a computer enthusiast, liked to draw, mainly etchings,and used to go
to art exhibits. He excelled in Capoeira, a Brazilian blending of martial arts,
music and dance; he also instructed younger children. His days were packed
with plans for the future.
That fateful day he had planned to go to the beach with friends after dining
with this family at the Maza restaurant.
His many friends, who dearly loved him,waited for Ofer in his empty room,
fighting back tears.
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Adi Shiran, 17
was another innocent victim of the savage attack.Her
name, however, was not released for two days because her parents could not
be informed of her death – they were unconscious in Haifa’s Rambam
hospital, also wounded in the attack. Her father was in critical condition and
her mother in serious condition.
The beautiful Adi loved to act and dance, and also wrote and composed songs.
She was a member of her school’s singing troupe and dreamed of being
accepted to an army singing troupe.After that, she had planned to study acting
in London.
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Orly Ophir, 15
also came to the restaurant with her family - her mother
and two older sisters.Orly was injured in the stomach by the blast,but did not
lose consciousness. In the hospital, she even talked to the medical team.
However, the wound, which seemed moderate at first, turned out to be fatal.
A nail, one of many that filled the explosive device to cause as much damage
as possible, apparently punctured her abdomen, tearing vital blood vessels.
Orly, “the loveliest girl in the world with a wonderfull sense of humor,” as her
sister described her, studied in a Haifa high school and was a star player on the
Haifa Maccabi girl’s football team. She was very involved socially and worked
as a counselor in the international youth movenent, C.I.S.V., which strives to
bring people and cultures closer together.
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Murdered at the supermarket
Rachel Levy, 17
Two high school girls stood next to each other on Friday afternoon, March 29,
2002,at the entrance to the supermarket in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood in
Jerusalem.One was Rachel Levy, 17, a resident of Jerusalem’s Ramat Sharet
neighborhood.The other, Iyat Mahmad Alahres, 18, was a Palestinian from
the Dehaisha refugee camp. Rachel had come to buy a few things she couldn’t
find in her neighborhood grocery store.Iyat had come on a mission from one
of the Fatah’s terror groups - the AIAqsa Brigades - to murder as many
innocent civilians as possible. When the supermarket security guard asked to
check her bags she blew herself up. Rachel was critically injured and died of
her wounds a short time later.
Rachel had studied in the twelfth grade at Ziv High School in
Jerusalem, majoring in art.She was a gifted photographer.Her mother
described her as a girl who loved to read, sing and listen to music.She
adored spORTs. She was good natured, pretty and liked to dress well.
Rachel loved to read bedtime stories to her younger brother, Koby,7.
Whenever she went out at night, Koby would wait for her in bed until she
returned. When his mother told him that Rachel was killed, he asked, “So
there won’t be any more stories?”
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Terror is not blind. It knows exactly who it strikes
Danielle Shefi, 5:
Killed in her bed
On Sabbath morning,April 27, 2002, a terrorist infiltrated the community
of Adora and broke into the Shefi family home. He burst into the
children’s room where he found the mother, Shiri, trying to protect her
three small children – Danielle, 5; Eliad, 4; and Oriel, 2.
The terrorist certainly saw the fear in their eyes. He shot them all.
Daneille was killed on the spot; her mother and two brothers were
wounded.
“My pure and innocent daughter was brutally killed by a l owly
Palestinian terrorist, ”Shiri Shefi said at her daughter’s funeral.As a
young child, Shiri’s father survived the massacre of the Jews of Hebron
in 1929. His granddaughter was not as lucky.
“She was beautiful,” said Yaakov Shefi, Danielle’s father. “She was also
very intelligent.Despite her young age, she understood the gravity of
the security situation, and asked questions about the various attacks.”
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