Hundreds attend funeral for Ziv Hajbi, slain in West Bank terror shooting

Hundreds attended the funeral Monday of Ziv Hajbi, a 35-year-old father of three who was killed the previous day in a shooting attack in the West Bank.

Among those in attendance, the Walla news site reported, were relatives of Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, who was also killed in the terror attack at the Barkan Industrial Park in the northern West Bank and was buried on Sunday night.

Hajbi’s wife, Natalie, wept as she addressed her deceased husband at the ceremony, which was held in the southern agricultural community of Nir Yisrael.

“My darling, I can’t say watch over us from above because you are here,” she said. “Help me to raise the children. We’ve been together since we were 17 and half. Come back, I will love you forever.”

Hajbi’s mother, Iris, recalled her son as someone who “loved life, loved work.” She called for the death of his suspected murderer, who is still at large.

“I want this person to die,” Hajbi said of Ashraf Na’alowa, who was a coworker of her son and Levengrond Yehezkel at the Alon Group. “Anyone who touches Jews should be killed.”

“He left early in the morning for work and this is what he got in the end, this is what we got in the end,” Hajbi said. “My son didn’t go out to wage war, he went out to work.”

“On this coming Shabbat he has a birthday. He is 35, just 35,” she continued. “Why do I need to bury my son at age 35?”

Na’alowa entered the offices of the Alon Group on Sunday morning armed with a locally produced Carlo-style submachine gun, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

He had a valid work permit and carried the firearm used to commit the shooting attack in his backpack, which wasn’t inspected as he passed through security checks.

Inside, the gunman handcuffed Levengrond Yehezkel and fatally shot her from close range. He then shot another worker, Sara Vaturi, 54, in the stomach, moderately wounding her. Na’alowa then shot and killed Hajbi.

The suspect, from the village of Shuweika near Tulkarem, fled the scene, prompting a large-scale search of the area and a deployment of additional troops to the West Bank to prevent copycat attacks, the army said. Security forces detained Na’alowa’s brother and sister on Monday morning.