Four and a half days after a deadly missile strike destroyed an apartment building in Bat Yam, rescue crews on Thursday evening recovered the body of Maria Pashkurova from beneath the rubble. The 31-year-old Ukrainian woman was the ninth confirmed fatality in the attack.
Pashkurova lived on Jerusalem Street in Bat Yam with her 8-year-old daughter Anastasia (Nastya) Burik, her mother Yelena (Olena) Sokolova and two other children—Konstantin Totvits, 10, and Ilya Peshkoryov, 15. All were killed in the strike, which Iran has claimed responsibility for.
The family had come to Israel from Odesa, Ukraine, in December 2022 on a medical tourism visa to treat Nastya, who was battling leukemia. After initially overcoming the disease, it returned and a bone marrow transplant failed to stop it.
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Nastya's father, Artem Burik, is a Ukrainian soldier currently serving on the front lines against Russia and was unable to leave the country due to wartime restrictions on men under 60. He had raised money for his daughter's treatment in Israel, with local volunteers helping to gather half of the $100,000 needed for her care.
“I spoke with Nastya just hours before she died,” Burik said from Ukraine. “She told me she saw missile interceptions over the house and was frightened. I can’t grasp this tragedy. My family fled war in Ukraine and died in Israel. It’s unbearable. I hope I can stay sane through this. I don’t know how I’ll get through it.”
Burik expressed gratitude to the Israeli doctors who treated his daughter. “She had complications, and my little girl survived six surgeries,” he said.