Mazal Afari

July 7, 2003 - Mazal Afari, 65, of Moshav Kfar Yavetz was killed in her home in a terrorist suicide bombing.

On Monday evening, the bomber apparently entered the Afari home in Kfar Yavetz, a moshav located in the Sharon area in central Israel, close near the seam line border with the West Bank. Mazal's son Nadav, who lives in an adjacent house, said that his mother's door was always open so that neighbors could come in. As a result of the explosion, the ceiling collapsed and Mazal Afari was killed. Three of her grandchildren who were in the house were lightly wounded. Moshe, her husband, was in the synagogue with Nadav at the time of the explosion. The remains of the bomber were also found in the wreckage of the house. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mazal, nee Yitzhari, was born in a village near San'a, in Yemen, and lost both her parents at an early age, in the late 1940s. Mazal, then two years old, and her older brothers, Yehiel and Shlomo, fled from the village, where orphaned Jewish children were often kidnapped and converted to Islam. They arrived in San'a and continued to Aden, where they were taken into a camp set up by the Jewish Agency. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the three immigrated and were sent to different boarding schools.

After they were married, Mazal and her brother Yehiel joined a group of Yemenite Jews who established Kfar Yavetz. Shlomo settled in Kfar Sava. Mazal devoted her life to raising her eight children. Neighbors related that she was the most dominant woman on the moshav. A righteous woman who would sit and read psalms, she was always ready to help anyone to asked and was active in the local senior citizens' club. Just three months ago, Mazal had successfully undergone surgery to remove a growth from her head.

Mazal Afari was buried in the Tel Mond regional cemetery. She is survived by her husband Moshe, four sons, four daughters, and 21 grandchildren.