Tzofia and Ya-akov Eliyahu

Mar 2, 2002 - Tzofia Eliyahu, 23, and her son Ya'akov, 7 months, of Jerusalem were two of 11 people killed in a suicide bombing on Saturday evening near a yeshiva in the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem.

Tzofia Ya'arit Eliyahu lived in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood. On Saturday, she went with her two children, 2-year-old Shira and the baby Ya'akov, to her sister's house, who lived nearby. They went for a walk. "When we came back", said her sister Livnat, "Yaakov started crying, and Tzofia lifted him from the baby carriage." Livnat continued walking with Shira and the carriage, when the explosion occurred. "I looked back, and I didn't see Tzofia and Ya'akov - I just saw fire." The baby died with his mother, in her arms.

The young mother, who was newly religious and had moved to Jerusalem in search of a more spiritual life together with her husband Ofir. They moved to Jerusalem, so they could live near Ofir's yeshiva. Ofir received the tragic news while in military jail for refusing to go to the army reserve duty, remaining to study at the yeshiva.

Tzofia Ya'arit and Ya'akov Avraham Eliyahu were laid to rest in Moshav Noam, south of Kiryat Gat. They left behind Tzofia's husband Ofir and daughter Shira.