JERUSALEM — As Israel mourns its dead from a particularly bloody weekend of Palestinian terror, one family stands out in its misery.
Hundreds of mourners crowded into a Rishon le-Zion cemetery Sunday to bury seven victims of the previous night’s suicide attack in Jerusalem — all members of the same extended family.
“I want them home. I want them with me,” cried the family matriarch, Chana Nehmad.
A mother of eight, Nehmad lost a son, a daughter-in-law and five grandchildren in the attack.
Three other people were killed in the bombing in the fervently Orthodox Beit Israel neighborhood.
The extended family had gathered in Jerusalem over the weekend to celebrate the bar mitzvah of one of Nehmad’s grandsons. The attack occurred as the Sabbath ended and family members were leaving.
Among those mourned Sunday was Shlomi Nehmad, 40; his wife, Gafnit, 32; and their two daughters, Shiraz, 6, and Liran, 3.
“It is incomprehensible that an entire family disappears in a single second,” a bereaved friend said. “They were a match made in heaven. They loved each other and did everything for the children.”
The couple had met at the offices of the Rishon le-Zion municipality, where they worked in different departments.
Last week, the family had celebrated Liran’s third birthday at her nursery school before traveling to Jerusalem. Gafnit was anxious about going to Jerusalem because of the security situation.
“She was afraid to go. She had a bad feeling about it. She even cleared her desk of work before she left,” said David Rahamim, Gafnit’s boss.
Friends and colleagues described Gafnit as warm and friendly. They said her desk was covered with family pictures and notes friends had written her.
Also killed in Saturday’s attack was Shaul Nehmad, 15, the son of one of Shlomi’s brothers.
Family members recalled how Shaul had run back to the guest house to get wine for the Havdallah service that marks the end of Shabbat. On the return trip, he was killed instantly when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated his explosives. Shaul’s brother, Eli, was seriously wounded.
Ronit Ilan, Shlomi’s sister, had gone with her middle daughter, Linoi, to change clothes when the attack occurred.
Ronit’s husband, Shimon, was outside with their two other children, Lidor, 12, and Oriah, 18 months, when the blast occurred.
The two children were killed. Shimon was wounded in the leg.
“My wife grabbed our daughter, and was crying, ‘She’s dead, she’s dead,'” Shimon said.
“I just hope that this will be the end of the blood-letting,” one mourner told a reporter. “They should be the last ones to lose their lives in this conflict.”
As a long-time volunteer medic for Magen David Adom, Yohai Porat helped save lives in numerous terror attacks and disasters, including the Feb. 16 suicide bombing in Karnei Shomron that killed three teenagers and the June 1, 2001, attack outside a Tel Aviv disco that killed 21 Israelis.
On Sunday, while on reserve duty in the West Bank, Porat, 26, was killed along with nine other Israeli soldiers and civilians by a Palestinian sniper.
Even before immigrating to Israel, Steven Koenigsburg, 19, dreamed of serving in the army.
In his native South Africa, Koenigsburg was active in the Beitar youth movement. He moved to Israel with his father two-and-a-half years ago and settled in Hod Hasharon.
On Sunday, Koenigsburg, a sergeant, was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack near the Kissufim Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
“His death was not a waste,” said Koenigsburg’s father, Kevin. “Because of him and his comrades, we can live in this country, which is the only one we have.”
Koenigsburg is survived by his father and mother, stepmother and stepsister and by two siblings.