Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., July 25, 2008 Tamuz 22, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:46 (EST+7)
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Holon teens electrocuted at 'foam party' at Turkey hotel
By Barak Ravid and Yigal Hai

Two brothers from Holon were electrocuted at a hotel in Turkey Tuesday night while attending a "foam party."

The two, Shai Hakim, 18, and his brother Nir, 14, were on holiday with their family at the Venice Hotel in Antalya. During a foam party at the hotel, a short circuit occurred, apparently caused by a sparkler. Four people were injured - the two brothers; a Turkish holiday-maker, who also died; and a tourist from Kazakhstan.
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As a result of the panic that followed the incident, the two injured teens did not receive medical attention for some time. They were eventually taken to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

The local police arrested the operator of the foam machine.

Yesterday, when the news arrived from Turkey that the two brothers had been killed, Holon went into mourning.

Shai's friends said that he had flown to Turkey for a family holiday on Saturday night, just two hours after he returned from a trip to Eilat with his friends. Shai was a student at the Kugel High School in town, majoring in computers.

"We had just started going out - we had been together a month - when this disaster happened," said his girlfriend, Shani Solimni, 18. "We came back from the trip [to Eilat] and he flew to Turkey with his family. It was important for him to be with his family. He was always smiling. I just can't believe what happened."

Another friend, Tom Mendelson, 18, related that "Shai and his family moved from Lod to Holon about three years ago, and he quickly became a central figure in our bunch of friends. On the annual school trips and at parties he stood out for his sense of humor and love of life."

Shai had planned to study computers for one more year at ORT Holon before going to the army, as he wanted to obtain a "quality" posting during his military service.

Oren Tama, 18, another friend, said that "Shai was always smiling and optimistic, offering help to all his friends."

Orna Marcus-Ben, a history teacher at Kugel High School who had taught Shai since tenth grade, described him as "a lovely boy, with tons of charisma, a good friend and very much loved by his friends. He was a leader. This is a terrible disaster."

Shai and Nir had three siblings: Noah, 23, Sarili, 21, and Guy, 14, who is Nir's twin.

Nir was a student at the Shalom Aleichem Middle School in Holon, where he had gone after graduating from the city's Shenkar Elementary School.

Gal Mendelson, a classmate from Shenkar, described him as "a very good student who loved sports, a boy who smiled a lot and was friendly. He was always with his twin brother in the breaks."

In Shenkar's sixth-grade yearbook, his friends wrote: "Nir is smart and fiendly and his hobby is basketball. He is good in school and is interested in everything, and by nature he is industrious and curious. He knows all the makes of cars and he is also the smartest guy in town."
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