"It's a pain that won't let go" • 20 years since the attack on the 'Maxim' restaurant in Haifa

Exactly 20 years have passed since that terrible day, when a suicide bomber entered the "Maxim" restaurant, located next to the pastoral beach in Haifa. The terrorist sat down and ate the food she ordered at the restaurant and immediately afterwards blew herself up. So, 20 years ago, it was the day before the eve of Yom Kippur, Saturday 04/10/2003.

21 people were murdered in the attack at the Maxim restaurant. 15 were killed on the spot or shortly afterwards, and 6 more died of their wounds later. The attack was planned and carried out by the Islamic Jihad. Among the murdered were two families, in each of which 5 family members from 3 generations were murdered: grandparents, parents and children.

The restaurant staff

The restaurant staff was also injured in the attack, 4 of the restaurant's employees were murdered, including one of the owners and the security guard. The terrorist was driven to the restaurant by a driver of illegal residents, who he and the terrorist ate together at the restaurant. In court, the driver claimed that he did not know it was a terrorist attack. Despite this, the court sentenced the driver to 10 years in prison for causing death by negligence.

Tova Behat: "Bad things happen in life and you must never surrender"

Narrator Tova Bahat, who dined at the restaurant with her husband and two small children, says: "It was a Saturday. I was 35 years old and the children were 3 and 5.5 years old. We were on the boardwalk and at the beach, we lay down on the grass and the children played next to us. It was so pleasant and fun. That Saturday After the kids played, we went to eat at Maxim's. We finished eating and my husband got up to pay the bill at the cash register. When he stood at the cash register to pay, there was an explosion behind me.

A column separated me from the terrorist. The explosion was towards the front of the restaurant, not towards me. After the explosion there was a deathly silence for a few seconds. I immediately understood what happened. I understood that something had happened to my husband's tsiki, because he did not return to the table. Hadar, my son, was hit in the head and bled. I quickly ran barefoot with Hadar on my hands and with Amber, my daughter, outside. I stepped on the glass from the explosion.'

"I realized that Tsiki is probably not alive"

This is how she continues to tell: "I saw Tsiki lying by the cash register on the way out. I realized that Tsiki is probably not alive. It was important to me to get the injured Hadar to the ambulance as quickly as possible. The police quickly arrived at the restaurant. I handed Inbar to one of the policewomen, who were there, and ran with Hadar to find an ambulance. Vehicles stopped to help.

Two guys stopped next to me and I asked them to take Hadar to the hospital in an ambulance. They took him, and I returned to the restaurant, to Tsiki. The security forces were there and I saw that Tsiki was not being turned away. I saw he had no pulse. First the wounded are evacuated, then the dead. The wounded were no longer in the restaurant and I realized that Tsiki was really killed."

"In the morning I had to inform my daughter that father is gone and my brother is seriously injured"

"I went with Inbar to the hospital. Hadar came to Rambam, and Inbar and I joined him. I found him before he went down for surgery. They took care of me and Amber because we were slightly injured. In Rambam it became clear that Hadar was mortally wounded. He was 3 and 4 months old at the time. A bullet from the luggage penetrated his head and caused extensive brain damage. The doctors fought for his life. During the night Tsiki was identified by Abu Kabir. In the morning I had to inform Anbar that his father was gone and his brother was injured Hard".

"This is where a crazy journey began"

This is how Tova continues the story: "This is where a crazy journey began. Hadar spent 3 months at Rambam and underwent a series of head surgeries. Despite the danger to his life, he survived it. After about 3 months at Rambam, he moved to full hospitalization rehabilitation at Beit Levinstein, a rehabilitation that lasted two years. My mother and the whole family mobilized during these years to help us in this terrible reality.

After two years we released him from Beit Levinstein and Hadar was treated at Bnei Zion in child development and Beit HaLochem in Haifa, he was the youngest there. To this day, he does most of his sports and rehabilitation activities there and Beit HaLochem is definitely his second home. Today he is 23 years old and is a table tennis player in the association for disabled sports. He did an instructors course at Wingate. Inbar is a biotechnology engineering student in Be'er Sheva.

"I never went into charming again"

"I never entered Maxim again. We moved in 2008. We stayed in the same neighborhood. It was important to me that the children stay in their settings, so even when we moved, we stayed in the neighborhood. They both studied at Leo Buck, and the school was a warm home and a very supportive system."

Disability as a result of the attack

"Hadar has a disability as a result of the injury, but he is very independent. He drives. The disability he has left is in his right body. After the injury, he was confined to a wheelchair, did not speak or walk. He underwent a long and arduous rehabilitation that put him back on his feet."

"We went through hell. I am a fully functional human being, and that's how it was from the first moment. I had a goal in mind all this time, I had to rehabilitate my children. Of course, there were setbacks. The biggest difficulty was on holidays and birthdays, to this day I don't like holidays. We got A lot of help from friends and family, at an indescribable level. Also from friends in the neighborhood, in kindergartens, at school."

Do you sometimes think about the matter of coincidences?

"I don't deal with the whole issue of accidents. Tsiki played soccer on the field near our house. Every Friday he would play soccer there at noon. On the Friday before the attack, he was hit by a bullet and his finger was injured. On Saturday, the finger was very swollen. We debated whether to go to the emergency room. He said : What will they do in the emergency room with a broken finger and we went to the sea.

You can say "come on, if we had gone to the emergency room, he wouldn't have died", but I don't bother with that. It's an unrelenting pain. Every time there is an attack or a soldier is killed, I just tear up, it ends me, I know what the family is going through."

Do not give in to difficulty

"Bad things happen in life and one must not give in to hardship. Hadar is the proof of that. The situation in the country is unbearable for me. So many people have paid with their lives for life in Israel, a Jewish and democratic country, and what is happening here in the last year is the shedding of their blood in vain. It makes me very sad. Especially This year is the 20th anniversary of the attack."

"We received get well wishes and games from people who don't know us"

"When it happened, there was endless attention from people. We received get well wishes and games from people who don't know us. People prayed and called to ask how we were, and so on years after that. The feeling of solidarity was very different from today. The hatred that is going on today is crazy. I am experiencing a trauma of worry , where my children will live. What are we paying this price for?'

Eli and Ora Regev: "Nir accompanies us in every moment of life"

Eli and Ora Regev implicated their son Nir in the attack. "Today we are experiencing a great difficulty, it is 20 years since the attack," Ora says painfully and adds: "Our lives have changed a lot since then. There is no child at the holiday table. Nir went that Shabbat with his girlfriend to the Maksim restaurant. He was 25 years old. He saw the terrorist , when she walked in. The terrorist was supposedly pregnant, and she had an explosive in her stomach.

The security guard did not recognize her at the entrance. She came in and said "Now I'm doing it", and blew herself up. Nir took one splinter in the brain stem. We happened to be watching TV, and suddenly we see the car, which we bought him a month ago, on TV. At that moment I screamed and told Eli that we had become bereaved parents at that moment. He said to me, "Let's go to Magic." We drove and Eli recognized Nir's car. We knew it was the car we bought for him a month ago."

"The sight of Nir in the morgue does not leave me for a moment"

"Nir's company was turned over to Rambam. I managed to see her there. Two policemen caught me and let me talk to her. She was injured in the hand. She was shocked, she couldn't answer me. I immediately understood that Nir was among the dead. Doctors put her in the morgue and showed me Nir. This sight never leaves me. It would seem as if only at that moment he breathed his last."

"I was 51 at the time. We have another eldest son in Jerusalem, Asaf, and we have a little daughter, Einat. We breathe and live Nir every moment. He is with us all the time. I got sick twice following death. We pass through life, nothing more than that. Nir He graduated with a bachelor's degree at the University of Haifa in political science and statistics."

"We haven't entered the restaurant since and we never leave there either."

"We have not entered the restaurant since then, nor do we drive through there. We are unable to pass through there. Our close friends do not drive through the restaurant either."

"Nir was with his girlfriend for a few months, they lived together. I then went to his apartment and found his things. Every year she contacts us on Remembrance Day and comes with her mother to go to the grave together. She is married and has children. Remembrance is a very special day It's hard for me. The whole family is coming to the memorial, and Nir's friends too."

"We wanted a modest memorial at the entrance to the Magic"

"A year after the attack, the owners of the restaurant did not admit their guilt. They claimed that there was a security guard and he had a magnetometer. We decided that we did not want anything to do with them and we did not want to sue them. I did not want to hear anything from them. We just wanted a modest memorial at the entrance to Maxim. Whoever enters the restaurant will pass Near the monument. The owners of the restaurant did not agree. We demonstrated there and in the end it was decided to put a large monument aside. Those who enter the restaurant do not always see the monument."

"I will always live close, that I can take care of them"

"Nir was a sweet boy. What we understood from all his friends, that he always told them that when his parents are old, he will always take care of them. "I will always live close, that I can take care of them," he said. My grandson is with me now, he had a day April 1st birthday. I asked him what he would like, and he said he would like Nir to come one more time and I could hug him.

He was a child with a sense of humor and respect for his mother and father. He worked at Bank Leumi in Neve Shanan. There was an elderly woman who used to come with a little money and they didn't want to accept her. She would say she came to Nir. She came to us for shiva and told us this. How patient he was to count all her small coins."

Contact with families of murdered people

In the first years we were in close contact with relatives of other victims, but over time the ties were severed. We try to hold on to our grandchildren, they are the bright spot in our lives. Nir's disadvantage on Rosh Hashanah was so prominent. Since the attack, we do not celebrate birthdays or holidays. We are running away abroad. This Rosh Hashanah was special, because my two grandsons are soldiers and they came back and we wanted to see them, but it was unusual."