‘I don’t know what will happen to me and the children,’ says widow of terror victim

“I don’t know how to continue to be strong for the children,” said Tal, the widow of Yotam Ovadia, who was killed Friday in a stabbing attack in the town of Adam.

By: World Israel News Staff 

Hundreds of family members, friends and acquaintances attended the funeral of Yotam Ovadia, 31, murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in a stabbing attack on Thursday night. Yotam was buried at Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, leaving two young children, Harel and Itai, and his wife Tal.

“I don’t know what will happen to me and the children now,” Tal said Saturday, as quoted by Ynet.

“I don’t know how to continue to be strong for the children. We were everything to him. The house was his kingdom.”

“Yotam was a decent, modest and humble man of work,” she said.” He loved me and the children in a way I never saw. All he did was just for us. He always made sure he was good. Always puts himself last.”

Tal added that on the day he was murdered, Yotam had come from work with a bouquet of flowers and chocolates for her.

“After I put the children to bed, he went to fetch the groceries from his parents, but he did not get to them, “she said. “He fulfilled every dream. I always said to him, ‘You are the one, the only one, and my special one.'”

Yotam grappled with the 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist, which might have bought time for security personnel and prevented the harming of additional potential victims, according to a security guard who works on Adam, Ynet reported.

Asaf Ravid ultimately killed the terrorist and prevented him from continuing his murder spree on Adam.

“I went out for a bike ride and in my bag there is always a pistol. I heard shouts, and then the terrorist appeared in front of me. Within two seconds, he took out a knife from his pocket and stabbed me in the shoulder. I fled from him, and during the flight, I took the pistol out of my bag, and he was standing near me. He realized he had no chance. I shot him once and he kept approaching, and then I fired two more times and he fell,” Ynet quoted Ravid as saying.

The commander of the local police station in Adam, Eli Ovadia, is Yotam’s cousin.

“I was prepared to leave my house for the scene of the attack.  I gave orders to my officers,” recounted Ovadia, according to Ynet. “At this point I had not yet spoken to my uncle and aunt. As I got closer to the scene I realize that it was the street where Yotam’s father and mother, Avraham and Carmela, live.

“I did not want to believe it had anything to do with them. But when I arrived, I was told that it was Yotam. It was a shock. I was in shock. I was devastated. My stomach felt as though it was torn apart.”

Judea and SamariaPalestinian terrorYotam Ovadia