Victims’ relatives visit site of attack at Burgas airport

Relatives of the five Israeli tourists killed in a bombing in Bulgaria visited the site of the attack on Wednesday to light candles in memory of their slain loved ones.

The mourners walked through the bus parking lot of the Burgas airport to the spot where on July 18 a still-unidentified suicide bomber detonated his explosives, killing the Israeli tourists as well a Bulgarian bus driver.

The families laid flowers at the site of the explosion and lit candles for the victims.

“I lit a big candle and a small one, too,” said Itzhak Shriki, an engineer whose pregnant wife, Kochava, was killed. “The big one is for my wife, while the small is in memory of the unborn child.”

Shriki was few steps away from his wife when the bomb ripped through a bus packed with tourists. “It hurts a lot when I try to recall what happened, and it is difficult to go on,” he said.

On Tuesday, the relatives attended a ceremony in the country’s biggest synagogue, where they were joined by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

At a commemoration ceremony for the slain, Ya’alon warned that Israel would pursue the perpetrators of the Burgas bombing “to the bitter end” by “any means necessary.”

On Tuesday, Lebanese newspaper Al-Jumhuriya reported that Bulgarian investigators were leaning toward blaming Hezbollah for the bombing.

Investigators say they are still searching for the bomber and his accomplices, and the interior minister in Sofia recently said the investigation would take a long time but was moving forward.