Atara Livne

Mar 12, 2002 - Atara Livne, 15, of Kibbutz Hanita was one of six Israelis killed when two terrorists opened fire from an ambush on Israeli vehicles traveling between Shlomi and Kibbutz Metzuba near the northern border with Lebanon.

The two gunmen, dressed in IDF uniforms and armed with Kalashnikov and M-16 rifles and grenades, hid in undergrowth at the side of the road and opened fire on vehicles heading toward Kibbutz Metzuba around 12.30 P.M. Israeli forces killed the two gunmen and carried out wide-scale searches for additional terrorists. Six Israelis were killed and 7 wounded in the attack. Atara asked her mother, Lynne Livne, to drive her to visit a friend in nearby Kibbutz Metzuba; both were killed by gunfire.

"I lost a wonderful wife and an incredible daughter", said Tuvia, Atara's father. "You were so pretty, like a flower. It seems like only yesterday I was at your birth. Now I and your siblings are burying you."

Atara attended high school at Kibbutz Gesher Haziv. Her friend Emily said, "Atara was an amazing girl. She was funny, full of the joy of life." A cup of water, a cup of apple juice, a notebook, and a textbook about the western Galilee during the War of Independence remained standing on Atara's bedroom desk.

Atara Livne was buried in Hanita alongside her mother Lynne. She is survived by her father, Tuvia, her sisters Talia and Meirav, and her younger brother Yonatan.