Liran Zer-Aviv

Oct 4, 2003 - Liran Zer-Aviv, four, of Kibbutz Yagur was one of 21 people killed in a suicide bombing carried out by a female terrorist from Jenin in the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast devastated the restaurant, of joint Jewish-Arab ownership, on Hahagana Boulevard near the southern entrance of the coastal city. It was packed mostly with regular Saturday customers. The bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past Maxim's security guard before blowing herself up in the middle of the restaurant. The security guard, an Israeli Arab, was killed in the attack, along with three other Israeli Arab employees of the restaurant. The victims included five members of the Almog family from Haifa and five members of the Zer-Aviv family from Kibbutz Yagur. Four children were killed and 60 people were wounded in the bombing.

The Zer-Aviv family had gone shopping in Haifa and went to Maxim for lunch. Liran, his mother, Keren, father, Bezalel, sister, Noya, and grandmother, Bruria, were eating when the blast killed them.

Liran Zer-Aviv was scheduled to celebrate his fourth birthday at the kibbutz nursery school on Sunday, the day after he was killed. He and his father had spent Friday decorating the nursery for the event. Instead, psychologists advised the children's parents how to cope with their reactions to his death.

Kibbutz members of all generations struggled to deal with the tragedy. "If one person is killed, you have the accepted norms of what to do," said Shlomit Atzmon, a neighbor of Bruria's and a colleague of Keren's. "When an entire family is killed... you mourn for all five, you feel all five of them in your heart and you have five times as much fear."

Liran Zer-Aviv was buried with his parents, sister, and grandmother in the Kibbutz Yagur Cemetery. He is survived by one grandmother and two grandfathers.