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Photo: Ido Erez
Hadas Mizrahi and son Yuval
Photo: Ido Erez

Passover terror victim's family returns to scene of attack for Seder

Widow taking five children in armored car back to Kiryat Arba, one year after murder; 'You have to be able to move forward if you want to be happy,' she says.

Baruch Mizrahi, a senior Israeli police officer, was killed last Passover eve when a terrorist opened fire on the his family's car near Hebron, but in an interview to Ynet, his widow says that won't deter the family from returning to the settlement of Kiryat Araba to celebrate the holiday – but this time they are taking an armored car.

 

 

For Hadas Mizrahi and her children Sharon, Einav, Itay, Nadav and Yuval, Passover eve is a traumatic event, a time overrun with memories of their beloved father, who was killed last year by a Palestinian terrorist en route to the Seder. Hadas was also wounded in the incident.

 

The Mizrahi family (Photo: Ido Erez)
The Mizrahi family (Photo: Ido Erez)

 

"I decided I would not break down – I would continue with my life," said the widow whose alertness prevented the incident ending in further bloodshed after she ordered her kids to keep their heads down.

 

The terrorist that killed her husband and wounded her was Ziad Awad from an adjacent Palestinian village. He planned the attack in advance after being released as part of the prisoner exchange deal that saw Sgt. Gilad Shalit freed from Hamas captivity.

 

Her husband, Chief-Superintendent Mizrahi, was 47 at the time of his death, was a well respected police officer who headed the technology department in SIGINT – the intelligence division of the investigations department in the police.

 

"After the shiva (Jewish week of mourning) ended I made sure we returned to full routine, despite all the emontional difficulty," she said.

 

"You have to be able to move forward if you want to be happy," she explains, saying it is possible she would remarry in the future.

 

She refuses to shelter her children from the harsh truth of the traumatic event. Yuval, 4, can recite the words engraved on his father's memorial by heart.

 

"Do you know how dad died?" she asks her little boy.

 

"The terrorist shot him."

 

Hadas Mizrahi and son Yuval at a memorial for Baruch (Photo: Ido Erez)
Hadas Mizrahi and son Yuval at a memorial for Baruch (Photo: Ido Erez)

 

Itay, 9, who read the Kaddish at his father's funeral, said he wanted to join the police force when he grows up. "They're evil people," he said about his father's killers. "Murderers deserve death."

 

Mizrahi, a Tel Aviv native, served in the IDF for 25 years. He performed operational and technological roles both as a conscript and as a professional soldier, ending up as a Lieutenant General in the 8200 intelligence unit. In June 2011 he was recruited into Israel's police force as chief superintendent.

 

For the three years before his death he led the technology department in SIGINT

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"Privately and secretly he contributed a substantial donation to the police forces' efforts against serious and organized crime, as well as all cyber-related crime," said a police statement.

 

"Beyond that, he led many projects in his field of expertise, left his mark on a wide-range of developments, and contributed a donation of great value."

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.03.15, 17:31
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