Witnesses Recount Tel Aviv Attack: ‘The Shots Just Didn’t Stop’

TEL AVIV – As the manhunt continues for the shooter who killed two and wounded several others in Tel Aviv on New Year’s Day, witnesses and the wounded are recounting their stories of horror. 

One man, Ido Luzon, was on his way to a birthday party when he was shot and wounded. As he was being evacuated to the hospital, Ido asked passersby to find his dog, Django. His brother, Tzahi, told YnetNews, “[Django] was with him at the scene and disappeared. We didn’t know where he’d disappeared to and put up a Facebook post that ended up going ultra-viral. I want to say thank you to all the people who went outside for look for him. We did it because we knew the first thing Ido would do when he woke up was to ask where Django was.”

Hours after the attack, 32-year-old Tel Aviv resident Uriah Ron located Django in an apartment building stairwell. “I went to visit a friend who lives two buildings away from the attack on Dizengoff Street and saw a red-haired dog in the stairwell, wet and shaking from the cold,” said Ron. “I thought someone might have gone upstairs and left him there for a few minutes. I went home after the visit and when I arrived at Gordon Street I asked myself, What was that dog doing there? I returned to the building and it seemed strange that there was a dog there and no one had touched him or was watching him.”

Uriah called a friend involved in animal welfare and she confirmed that the dog was the same one from Tzahi’s post. “I contacted a friend who knows the family, and after a few minutes someone arrived and took the dog to be examined,” Uriah said. “He was so hungry, cold, miserable, and exhausted that he ate cat food. I hope he gets back to Ido and that they both get better.”

According to Tzahi, Ido has undergone a series of major surgeries for his wounds.

Another of the wounded, 25-year-old Hadar Klein, was also celebrating a birthday party at the pub when the terrorist opened fire. “The shots just didn’t stop,” she recounts. “I tried to get further into the bar. Two rounds hit me in one side and came out the other. One of them fortunately missed a main artery by a centimeter.”

Ariel Nusbacher, who was celebrating his birthday at the time of the attack, was released from the hospital on Friday evening after sustaining light injuries. “I still need to digest what happened to me,” he said. Shimon Ruimi, who was shot and killed, was a very close friend of Nusbacher. According to Nusbacher’s mother, he is taking the murder of his friend very hard. “I can barely talk to him,” she said, “He says, ‘Mom, I want to be alone.'”

Israel Avitan, also lightly wounded in the attack, recalled the shooting: “I was sitting inside and then two friends went to the bathroom, and the friend who I just heard was killed went outside to smoke. I didn’t want to stay by myself so I sat with him. I heard shots and felt something burning my back. I fell and didn’t see anyone standing up. I crawled into the pub and all the chairs were overturned. We got everyone and went into the kitchen. My brother called MDA [Israel’s ambulance service].”