SOLIDARITY: Members of the United Jewish Communities lighting candles in Tel Aviv yesterday in memory of those killed in the terror attacks in the U.S. on Tuesday. The ceremony took place at the site of the July 1 terrorist attack on the Dolphinarium disco.
AP
Two Israelis are so far known to have died in Tuesday's multiple terror attacks in the United States, and another five are still missing.
However, most of the hundreds of Israelis listed as missing Tuesday night were successfully located yesterday.
Of these, about 25 were wounded and found in local hospitals by embassy staff in Washington and consulate staff in New York.
The consulate has not yet released the names of the five missing Israelis, all of whom were known to be in the World Trade Center when it collapsed. Of these, two are known to have worked for foreign companies in the center, but nothing is known about their fate. A third, who worked on the 100th floor of the Twin Towers, managed to call his wife by cellular phone while the towers were collapsing. He is presumed to be buried in the rubble, either seriously wounded or dead.
The two Israelis known to have died are Alona Avraham, 30, of Ashdod, and Daniel Lewin, 31, of Boston.
Avraham was on the second flight to crash into the World Trade Center Tuesday morning. She was flying from Boston to Los Angeles to spend Rosh Hashanah with her aunt and uncle. Avraham had called her parents the previous day to tell them of her plans, so when news broke that United Flight 175 was one of the planes that crashed, they immediately feared the worst. Although the airline later confirmed that she was on the fatal flight's passenger list, her relatives say they have still not given up hope that she failed to board the flight and is still alive.
Avraham, who was not married, had been working at Applied Materials, a high-tech firm in Rehovot. She went to the U.S. for vacation on August 30, and had planned to return before Yom Kippur. She is survived by her parents, Peretz and Miriam, and a younger brother and sister, both soldiers.
Lewin was on the first plane to crash into the Twin Towers. A one-time officer in the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, Lewin, co-founder and chief technology officer of the high-tech firm Akamai, had lived in Boston for five years. He usually flew to Los Angeles twice a week for business. Lewin immigrated to Israel with his parents from Denver, Colorado at the age of 14, and his parents, both doctors, still live here. They learned of their son's death only a few hours after returning to Israel from a visit to Boston. Lewin is survived by his parents, his wife, two children and two brothers.
The last of the missing Israelis to be located yesterday were Gali and Yaakov Haby, who were found alive and well at noon after having spent 20 hours trapped in Yaakov's car.
Yaakov lives in New York near the World Trade Center, and his daughter Gali, 28, was visiting him. The two had gone out to shop at 8:30 A.M. on Tuesday, but were trapped in the car once the attacks took place. For the next 20 hours, Gali's mother tried frantically to reach her, but only after the two were rescued was Gali finally able to call home.
Over the past day, some 4,500 Israelis have called the Foreign Ministry's situation room seeking news of relatives in the U.S. The ministry, the embassy in Washington and the consulate in New York will all remain open until the fate of all missing Israelis is known
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
