Zohar Niv had a family that was too large to fit into a single hotel room. Zohar, age 50, took his wife Tzila and four kids, Yael and Sharon, twins aged 18, Gilad, 11, and Lior, 3 for a vacation to Taba. They had to take two rooms, on the ninth floor. The twins were alone in one of the room when the Oslo bomb went off. The entire West wing of the hotel collapsed. One of the Niv rooms came down with it, including the other four family members. The twin daughters were safe in their room, which did not collapse. The wife and two smaller children were killed. Incredibly, the father survived, although most severely injured with multiple fractures and burns, and was rescued from the rubble. He was in a coma until he awoke yesterday. He was told the news. Tzila, Gilad and Lior were laid to rest today at the Holon cemetery.
Immigrants to Israel from Kazakhstan, Ludmilla and Oleg Paizakov placed a call Thursday evening to their two sons in Bat Yam to wish them good night. Minutes later, Ludmilla, 30, and Oleg, 32, were buried under the bombed ruins of the Taba Hilton. The couple had considered taking their children with them to Sinai, but Yigal, their 3-year-old, didn’t have a passport, so he and his brother, Daniel, 8, moved in with their grandparents for a few days.
“I said to [Daniel], `You know there was a terror attack. Mommy and Daddy won’t be coming home,'” Ludmilla’s sister, Olga Yitzhakov, recounted tearfully yesterday.