A mother who was “murdered while shielding her 9-month-old son” has been identified by Israel as one of the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attack at a train station outside of Tel Aviv.
Israel says the actions of Inbar Segev-Vigder in Jaffa on Tuesday “saved” the life of her child Ari.
“There are no words. Only heartbreak,” Israel posted on X. “May the memory of the victims be a blessing.”
Israeli police said Wednesday that a total of seven people were killed in a shooting that unfolded just minutes before Iran started launching ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for the recent killings of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
Two Palestinian men from the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Hebron opened fire, including shooting directly into a light rail carriage crowded with passengers that was stopped at a station.
The suspects — who police say had no prior arrests, although one had been involved in disturbing the peace at a demonstration — were later shot and killed by security guards and armed pedestrians, according to The Associated Press. Police and paramedics who responded to the scene treated another 16 people injured from the shooting.
Segev-Vigder lived in Tel Aviv and operated a fitness and Pilates studio, while her husband, Yaari Vigder, is an Israeli reservist soldier, The Jerusalem Post reports.
“Ari was in a carrier that covered Inbar’s entire upper body during the attack, he was not injured at all,” the website cited Yaari Vigder as telling Israel’s Channel 11 news.
“For the rest of his life — may he feel the same love he received from Inbar,” he reportedly added.
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A witness told Ynetnews that the 33-year-old mother was gunned down while stepping off a train in Jaffa, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The website identified four other victims as Revital Bronstein, 24, Shahar Goldman, 30, Nadia Sokolenko, 40, and Ilya Nozadze, 42.
Sokolenko’s family told Israel’s TPS news agency that they were waiting for her to return home from grocery shopping Tuesday night and her friends started checking area hospitals after her phone stopped answering calls.
Sokolenko, a native of Moldova who worked as an office manager, was described by friends as “a very creative person and very caring mom” of a 6-year-old daughter, TPS added.
Greece’s foreign ministry also said Wednesday that a Greek national who lived in Jerusalem was among the dead.
The motive for the shooting is unclear.
Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X in the wake of the attack that “I will now demand in the cabinet discussion that the family members of the abominable terrorists from Hebron who carried out the heinous attack in Jaffa be deported to Gaza tonight and their homes should be turned into ruins for them to see and see.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.