The full toll of yesterday’s bombing in Israel is not yet known. Twenty Israelis remain hospitalized this morning, three in serious condition. At present the blast has claimed five victims. Haaretz has brief profiles of each of the five here. One of the five (at the bottom left in the photo above) appears to have been an Israeli Arab:
A series of blows have struck the Qa’adan family from Baka al-Garbiyeh in the last two months. Jamil Muhammed Qa’adan was killed on Wednesday in the Hadera suicide bombing, his father Muhammed succumbed to illness two weeks ago and his brother Ziad died of a heart attack two months ago.
Jamil was an inspector for the Haifa district of the Education Ministry [according to the Jerusalem Post profile here, he was a Hebrew teacher]. On Wednesday morning, as usual, he drove his daughter Asra, 18, and his son Majid, 12, to school before he continued to his office in Haifa. The children returned home by bus.
In the afternoon, Jamil told his wife, Fatima, a teacher in Baka al-Garbiyeh, that he was going to do some shopping in Gan Shmuel before stopping at his bank in Hadera.
When the iftir meal that breaks the Ramadan fast came and Jamil had not returned, the family began to fear the worst. The fears were confirmed when two family members went to the Hillel Yaffeh Medical Center in Hadera and were given the bad news.
Hundreds of Baka residents paid condolence calls at the family home last night. Jamil is survived by his mother, one brother and five children: Tassami, 22; Shihad, 20; Asra, 18; Muhammed, 14, and Majid, 12. His two daughters attend universities in Jordan.
One of the victims (at the bottom right in the photo above) died with her husband at her side:
Sabiha Nissim would come to Hadera regularly from Moshav Ahituv with her husband Aharon. She was a regular customer at Falafel Barzilai. Aharon said Wednesday that he had strolled with her around the market and left her to buy produce. Suddenly the blast went off.
He ran to her and found her lying on the ground. He hugged her on the way to the hospital. “We are simple people,” he said Wednesday.
The Jerusalem Post has more information here. The Post reports that the murderer had been one of the “prisoners of freedom” (as President Abbas referred to them) released by Israel. The Post reports:
The suicide bomber was identified as 20-year-old Hassan Abu Zeid, from the West Bank village of Kabatiya. He reportedly served time in an Israeli prison, but was released because he was classified as not having blood on his hands.
In the Rose Garden last week, Abbas called on the Israelis to release more such “prisoners of freedom.”
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.