Ziv was described as a “golden boy, a magnificent father, a terrific man,” while Kim was eulogized as “smiling and good-hearted.”
By: Benjamin Kerstein/The Algemeiner
The victims of Sunday’s terror attack at a factory in the Barkan industrial area near the Samaria city of Ariel have been identified as Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel, 28, of Rosh HaAyin; and Ziv Hajbi, 35, of Rishon LeZion.
Hebrew news site Walla reported that Levengrond-Yehezkel had worked at the factory for a year as secretary to the vice-president of the company. She is survived by her husband and one-and-a-half-year-old son. She was a law student who was working in preparation for her exams.
A family friend described her as “smiling and good-hearted” on the day of her death. “We haven’t absorbed the heavy tragedy,” the friend added, “the skies have fallen on us.”
Hajbi was about to celebrate his birthday on Friday and leaves behind a wife and three children — seven-year-old twins and a four-year-old son. Benny, a friend of his, told Walla that when he heard of the attack at Barkan he desperately sent text messages to Hajbi, but “he didn’t answer. I asked him, ‘Ziv, is everything ok?’ He didn’t answer. His wife cried over the telephone.”
‘Quiet, Respectful, Never Harmed Anyone’
“He was easygoing,” Benny described his friend, “quiet, respectful, never harmed anyone, a good father, a good husband, an exemplary family man. He had amazing patience with children, modest … I would say to him, ‘Why do you have to make these trips to Samaria?’ He didn’t think it was a dangerous area.”
Another close friend of Hajbi, Assaf Dabul, noted two tragic coincidences, saying, “I was invited in two weeks to the widow’s brother’s wedding, I don’t know if it will take place.” Dabul also noted that Hajbi was planning to leave his job, wondering, “Who knows if he had left, maybe this wouldn’t have happened to him.”
“Ziv was a wonderful man,” he added. “A golden boy, a magnificent father, a terrific man.”
The attack took place early on Sunday morning at the Alon Group factory. The terrorist, armed with a homemade weapon, tied up his two victims and killed them execution-style. He then fired at another woman, who was moderately wounded but is expected to survive. The terrorist then fled the scene of the crime.
The suspect worked in the factory where the attack took place and has been identified by the security services as Ashraf Abu Shaham, a resident of the town of Shweika near Tul Karem. He worked at the factory as an electrician. A manhunt is underway.
