TEL AVIV – Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday night for the funeral of Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, an Israeli mother of a toddler, who was tied up and shot at close range in a terror attack earlier in the day.
Levengrond Yehezkel, 28, was buried in her hometown of Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel.
“I promise I’ll never forget you,” Levengrond Yehezkel’s husband, Guy, eulogized. “We will raise our son Kai exactly as you would have wanted. You will always remain my best friend.”
Mother Hava (C) and relatives and friends mourn during the funeral of Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, aged 28, one of the two Israeli nationals killed earlier in an attack on October 7, 2018, in Rosh Haayin, some thirty kilometers east of Tel Aviv. – A Palestinian shot dead two Israelis and wounded another at the Barkan settlement’s industrial zone in the occupied West Bank on October 7, sparking a manhunt for the suspect who worked at the site, the army said. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP/Getty)
Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi, 35, a father of three, were shot dead by a Palestinian terrorist who worked with them at the Alon factory, part of the Barkan Industrial Park in the West Bank.
Both families said the victims’ organs would be donated.
“I’m sorry I was not with you. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get there in time,” her father Rafi said at the funeral. “I promise you that Guy and Kai will receive everything they need. I promise that I will take care of them like I always took care [of you]. You can rest in peace.”
“I promised you that I’d always protect you, but today, this morning, I was unable to look after you,” her cousin Sapir said. “Your constant laughter is no more. I always wanted to be like you and to learn from you.”
Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and son Kai
Levengrond Yehezkel had earned a law degree and was preparing for the bar exam. She and her husband had been living in Barkan until a year ago.
“In the past few days, her son started to walk, and she was so excited about it,” another family member said at the funeral. “There was nobody happier than her. She was constantly filming him and sending the videos to everyone. Now she is no more. It is impossible to believe it and I can’t grasp that she was murdered.”
Communication Minister Ayoub Kara and Likud MK Oren Hazan, both personal friends of the family, were also in attendance at the funeral.
“It is a dark day,” said Kara. “I came to represent the government of Israel and to express solidarity with this dear family. I came to tell her husband and her baby who will never again see his mother: I’m sorry. I tried to advance a law to give the death penalty to terrorists but I have not succeeded.”
Hajbi’s funeral will be held on Monday at 2 p.m.
The industrial park employs some 5,000 Palestinians and is said to have been a bastion of coexistence. The terrorist, identified as 23-year-old Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alowa, was employed at the Alon factory for the past seven months as an electrician and had a legal work permit. He knew his victims.
He tied up Hajbi and and Levengrond Yehezkel before shooting them dead with a Carlo submachine gun. He also shot a third woman, 54, in the stomach, who sustained moderate injuries.
According to another factory worker, the terrorist’s Carlo submachine gun jammed, preventing him from further shooting. The gun has been connected to a series of terror attacks in recent years.
Earlier on Sunday, the suspect had posted on his Facebook page that he was “waiting for [Allah].”
He had been absent from work for several days. He is said to have no previous history of terror and no ties to terror groups.
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