Funeral of Aviel Haddad in Israel
(Video: Meshi Ben-Ami)
Aviel Haddad, who was killed in an attack near a synagogue in Tunisia Tuesday alongside his cousin Ben Haddad, was laid to rest on Friday in Israel.
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After his mother passed away three years ago, Haddad decided to make Aliyah. Due to guidelines by the IDF Home Front Command and the ongoing Operation Shield and Arrow, hundreds of mourners attended the funeral.
"He and his cousin were as close as brothers,” Haddad’s friends said. "He was a pillar of support to his family, someone who would always smile, his loss is grave.”
We thought he’d return from Jerba after he was married, but it didn’t happen,” Aviel's father-in-law said. "Thanks to him being there the lives of people within the synagogue were saved. God took him as a sacrifice."
"Aviel was someone you couldn’t describe, he was like a father to me," Lylach Haddad, Aviel’s cousin, said. "He would take my sister to the hospital when she was sick and never gave up on her. His mother passed away three years ago and he became the head of the house. What’s left now that he’s gone?”
“I was there when heard the gunfire,” she added. “At first, we thought it was explosions, and police officers told us that it was just a dispute between two other officers just so we wouldn’t panic.”
“My cousins were probably the first who were killed, but we only realized that later. It was very hard for us to return their bodies to be buried in Israel. Such a disaster could have been avoided." She added.
"The Jewish community in Tunisia is deeply rooted in authentic Judaism. They’re familiar with the area and never experienced something like this," Aviel’s family members said.
"Israel is dealing with terror which hatred and antisemitism serve to fuel. The synagogue in Tunisia was a target for terrorist attacks in the past and in the present," Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said, who attended the funeral as the government’s representative at the family’s request.