Sunday, February 27, 2005
IDF soldiers were the victims of the Disco Bombing
Who were the victims? From an updated version of the Jerusalem Post:
The platoon commander, Eran Cohen, told Army Radio,"There were 13 of us there. All the fatalities are from our unit. Many more were wounded."
Eran called the unit's soldiers, "The best of the best. Israel's elite."
"In the past five years of this war, we have carried out virtually every single mission in the territories and underwent nearly every kind of attempted attack. In five years, none of our troops were wounded. It's ironic that we were hit so hard in one explosion on a Friday night inTel Aviv, just before a party," Eran said.
From The Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1109387974746
It was a surprise birthday party that turned into a nightmare.
Close-knit members of a reserve IDF combat unit and their loved ones who gathered Friday night at the Stage nightclub to help one of the reservists celebrate his 30th birthday lost four of their group when a suicide bomber blew himself up.
Among the victims were Yitzhak Buzaglo, 40, of Moshav Mishmar Hayarden in the Upper Galilee who was a father of two, and Yael Orbach, 28, of Rehovot who was three weeks shy of her wedding. Also killed was carpenter Aryeh Nagar, 37, another member of the unit who came for the celebration. The coordinator of the birthday party, Ronen Reuvenov, 28, was the fourth victim. His name was released Sunday morning.
Reuvenov's sister Orley described her brother to Army Radio Sunday morning as, "someone who wasn't afraid of anything. He believed always that everything would be alright."
Buzaglo's wife, Linda, and Orbach's fiancee, Ophir Gonan, are among the seriously wounded.
Orbach, who grew up in Yavne, served in a combat unit and dreamed of becoming a famous actress. She worked in a law office in Tel Aviv and studied drama. She had planned to hand out wedding invitations at the party. As of Saturday night, Gonan had not been told of her death.
On Sunday, Yael Orbach's father, Yisrael, said that he would avenge his daughter's death if Israel does not, Army Radio reported.
"I call on these people and on the army, in tears and with full consciousness, to avenge Yael Orbach. If they do not avenge this righteous person, I will," he said.
Buzaglo was standing in line with his wife to enter the nightclub when the attack occurred. Those who knew him said he was the backbone of his family on the small farming community near the Mahanayim junction and a stalwart member of the combat reserve unit. He, like others in his unit, was in active service during the intifada and survived without even a scratch, including one incident involving another Palestinian suicide bomber.
"I know of at least one case where they escaped unscathed when a suicide bomber tried to blow himself alongside Itzik and other members of the unit when they were on reserve duty in the territories," Mevuot Hermon regional council chairman Beni Ben-Movhar told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night.
"Itzik and his comrades got through those times only for him to be killed and his wife wounded in what should have been a fun night out for them and their reservist friends in Tel Aviv," he said. "Instead, they found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The platoon commander, Eran Cohen, told Army Radio, "There were 13 of us there. All the fatalities are from our unit. Many more were wounded."
