The heart can hardly comprehend as we learn that 16 children were left fatherless after the terror attack yesterday in Elad. The names of the 3 victims of the terror attack in Elad were released early this morning.
The 3 victims of the Elad terror attack on Yom Haatzmaut
The three people who were murdered in the attack in the city of Elad were identified on Thursday night.
One of the victims is Yonatan Havakuk, a father of five children and a well-known figure in the city.
A second victim has been identified as Boaz Gol, a resident of Elad in his 40s, and also a father of five children.
The third victim is Oren Ben Yiftach, 35, a resident of the city of Lod and a father of six.
Three people were seriously injured in the attack.
The heart-rending funeral of Yonatan Havakuk took place this morning:
Hundreds of people attended the Friday funeral of Yonatan Havakuk, a 44-year-old father of five who was murdered Thursday night in a terror attack in the central city of Elad.
The eulogies began in Elad, after which the funeral procession will continue to the Yarkon cemetery, where Havakuk will be laid to rest.
Havakuk was known to many, due to his work at a garage in the city.
His brother-in-law said: “Whenever we needed, he would come right away to deal with the problems, and all of it with a smile. I learned a lot from him. We are trying to digest this. There’s no one like this person, there’s no replacement for him. The whole city knew him.”
Havakuk’s wife wrote on Facebook: “My heart refuses to believe that I have been left alone with five orphans. My heart is burning, that my young child saw his father during his last moments. My husband fought against them with great heroism and saved many people during the time he was fighting them for long minutes.”
“May G-d avenge your blood, my dear and beloved husband. We will miss you very much.”
The Jerusalem Post provides a short background on each of the victims, each one more heart-rending than the next:
Boaz Gol
“His children asked me how they could continue without a father,” Ronit, sister-in-law to victim Boaz Gol, told KAN. “I told them that he went to bring the Messiah so that there wouldn’t be any more victims.”
Gol’s son explained that he was still processing what had happened.
“Dad went to a Torah lesson and was murdered,” he told KAN, adding “I still haven’t digested it yet.”
Yonatan Habakkuk
“My heart refuses to believe that I was left alone with five orphans,” Limor, the wife of victim Yonatan Habakkuk, wrote on Facebook, noting that her husband “fought against the terrorists with great heroism for many minutes… saving many lives.”
“God will avenge your blood, my beloved husband. We miss you very much,” she continued.
Limor’s address and phone number have been concealed by the Israeli media per her express wishes mentioned in her post, which specifies “until the scoundrels are caught,” as her children are scared and traumatized.
“He helped everyone with a smile, the whole city called him ‘brother.’ There is no substitute for this man,” Habakkuk’s brother-in-law told Israeli media.
“I was his neighbor for 15 years, he was one of the most amazing people I knew,” Habakkuk’s friend, Amir Mizrahi, told Walla.
“He was our mechanic and he always had a smile on his face. He was the first to take me to Uman. His daughters study with mine.”
Mizrahi recounted how his friend was killed.
“From what I understood from my daughters who were there, they were having a meal in their home. He wanted to go call his son who was at the town square. He went down to look for his son and was murdered.”
Oren Ben Yiftach
Oren Ben Yiftach was a resident of Lod who worked as a shuttle driver and was only in the city to drive a rabbi to their from Beit Shemesh. He was killed while sitting in his car.
His wife, Nofar, noticed that his phone was located where the terror attack was taking place but was unable to contact him, nor were other family members. For hours, they wondered what had happened until Lod Mayor Yair Revivo came to their home and told them of his death, Ynet reported.
“The smile never left Oren’s face, it was his trademark. When you saw him smile, you smiled too,” explained former Labor MK Yoram Marciano, a relative and part of the Ben Yiftach family.
The Ben Yiftach family is a large and well-established family in the city.
“This is a family rooted in Lod, which had its roots in the city many, man years ago,” Marciano said, according to Ynet. “If you think ‘Lod,’ you think the Ben Yiftach family.”
The family had been going through trying times, with Oren’s older brother and father both dying of heart attacks.
“His mother lost her husband and a child in difficult medical circumstances, and now another child,” Marciano lamented, according to Ynet. “Terrible, horrible.”
The shock and trauma does not end with the funerals. The seriously injured, and those suffering from shock have a long road ahead of them too, as the JPost continues:
The brother-in-law of Shai Ben Shalom, one of the seriously injured victims, recounted the incident to KAN, noting that he was attacked right in front of his children.
“He took the children to the Elad Amphitheater Park. He turned around and they attacked him with an ax and a hammer. My brother-in-law jumped on them so that the children would run away.”
Due to the traumatic nature of the incident, Elad Mayor Israel Porush told KAN that hundreds of mental healthcare volunteers such as psychologists and social workers to help talk to the children and families.
However, school for the day was announced by the Elad Municipality to still be in session.
Shai’s mother Ilana has asked on Facebook for people to pray and say Tehillim for her son Shai ben Ilana.
The terror is not over for the 2 terrorists managed to escape, the cowards. A manhunt is on, and since the identity of the cowardly terrorists is known to the police I have no doubt they will be found. I will not post their pictures here, I don’t want to pollute my blog. You can see their picture at the link:
Police identified the two suspects 19-year-old Assad al-Rafai and 20-year-old Tzabahi Abu Shakir, both from the Jenin area in the West Bank. Security services released their pictures and have asked for the public’s help in locating them, indicating that the two might still be in Israeli territory.
With the rapid rise in these “lone-wolf” attacks – which are no such thing, they are all aided and abetted by the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, and are most certainly incited by the likes of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar who openly called for Palestinians to take up weapons to kill Jews:
It’s high time this depraved excuse for a human being is removed from the face of this earth. Sadly I think the solution provided by DavidinPT in my previous post seems to be the only solution.
May the injured have a refuah shlema umehira.
May the families of the murder victims be comforted amongst the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
May the memory of the 3 victims be for a blessing. May Hashem avenge their blood.
יהי זכרם ברוך
Anne's Opinions 
So these orphans join the 21 other orphans from earlier in the week .When and how will they stop this madness?
It seems that only the Arabs can walk around free and easy here,whilst us Israelis are terrorized,and our government officials are too scared to do anything worthwhile in case of dilomatic fallout.
Who cares about Amnesty international?They don’t care about Jews,or Human rights for anyone other than Palestinians.
I suggest we deport the entire family or villages where these terrorists come from.Deport them to Gaza and raze their houses
Your suggestion is the absolute minimum we should be doing