First of Two Terror Victims Laid to Rest in Emotional Funeral

By Sephardic News

Pictured Above: Family and friends attend the funeral of 29-year-old Kim Levengrond Yehezkel in her hometown of Rosh Ha'ayin on Oct. 7, 2018. Yehezkel was shot dead earlier in the day by a Palestinian terrorist at the Barkan Industrial Park in Samaria. A 35-year-old Israeli man was also killed in the attack. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

(JNS) Hundreds of people arrived in Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel on Sunday night to pay their last respects to Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, one of two victims of a terror attack at the Barkan Industrial Park in Samaria earlier that day.

Levengrond Yehezkel, a 29-year-old mother of a 16-month-old son, was found handcuffed and shot at close range at the offices of the waste-management systems company Alon Group at the 165-office, 8,000-employee facility, along with Ziv Hajbi, a 35-year-old father of three who worked in the office as an accountant.

Levengrond Yehezkel had served as the secretary to the CEO, but was studying for the legal bar exam. The man who shot her, 23-year old Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alowa, worked at the facility as an electrician and is being sought after in a nationwide manhunt.

“I want to assure you that we will never forget you,” cried Kim’s husband, Guy. “We will raise our Kai just as you wanted, and you will always remain my best friend.”

“I am sorry I was not with you. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get there in time,” said her father, Rafi. “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.”

The funeral was also attended by Minister of Communications Ayoub Kara and Likud Knesset Member Oren Hazan, both friends of the family.

“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 am sorry. I tried to advance a law to give the death penalty to terrorists, but I have not succeeded.”

Among the eulogies, someone noted that Kai had begun to walk in the past few days, his mother “was so excited about it.”

“There was nobody happier than her. She was constantly filming him and sending the videos to everyone,” the mourner said. “Now she is no more. It is impossible to believe it, and I can’t grasp that she was murdered.”

Levengrond Yehezkel’s family donated her organs, as did the family of Hajbi.