Victims of Tel Aviv shooting to be buried Sunday

The two victims of Friday’s shooting attack in central Tel Aviv will be laid to rest Sunday.

The funeral of Alon Bakal, 26, will take place in Carmiel at 3 p.m. Thirty-year-old Shimon Ruimi will be buried in Ofakim, also at 3 p.m.

The two were murdered Friday when a shooter, named later as Nashat Milhem, opened fire in the city’s busy Dizengoff street at around 2:30 p.m. Bakal was a manager at the Simta bar, one of the locations hit by the gunman. Ruimi was at the bar to attend a friend’s birthday.

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Six more were wounded in the attack. The shooter fled and scene and remained at large on Saturday, despite heavy police deployment and extensive searches throughout the city.

Memorial candles spell out the names of victims Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi, outside the Simta pub on Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv, on January 02. The two were killed by a gunman on January 1. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Alon’s father David paid tribute to his “very special” son Friday, and warned that the ongoing violence is costing the lives of the young generation of Israelis.

“We are losing our good kids,” Bakal’s father said from Ichilov Hospital, Walla reported.

“[Alon] studied law and business management, he was a thriving and happy child. He lit up every place he went, he made everyone laugh,” his father said. “Have no doubt, he was a very special child. He was very special to us. Yesterday he sent me a message: ‘I am having fun, I love to live.'”

David Bakal speaks to reporters at Ichilov Hospital after his son Alon, 26, was killed in a shooting attack in central Tel Aviv on January 1, 2016 (screen capture)

Charlie Alfasi, a family friend of Ruimi, said that he had traveled to Tel Aviv for the weekend with Yisrael Avitan, who was wounded, in order to celebrate a friend’s birthday, the Ynet website reported.

“They were supposed to stay with us Friday-Saturday, and we went down to the pub. Immediately after the waiter brought them their drinks, the terrorist started shooting at them. Shimon was killed and they were wounded,” Alfasi said.

Shimon Ruimi, 30, from the southern town of Ofakim, had traveled to Tel Aviv for a friend’s birthday when he was killed in a shooting attack in the city on January 1, 2016 (photo via Facebook)

Avitan told Ynet from his hospital bed that he and Ruimi had been outside when the gunman opened fire.

“I sat inside and two friends went to the bathroom, and the friend who I just heard was killed [Ruimi] went outside to smoke. I didn’t want to sit there alone [so] I sat with him. I heard gunfire and felt something burning in my back. I fell… I crawled into the pub and all the chairs were overturned. We gathered everyone up and went into the kitchen. My brother called Magen David Adom [ambulance service].”

The mayor of Ofakim, Itzik Danino, said Friday evening that the entire town was in shock over Ruimi’s murder.

“Our hearts are with the family and we will support them every step of the way,” Danino said. “We are keeping our fingers crossed for the recovery of the wounded.”

Eyewitnesses described how the black-clad gunman fired “salvoes” of indiscriminate gunfire, and how he “appeared in the doorway, smiling, and opened fire.”