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Victims Laid to Rest after Beersheba Bombing
David Rudge, The Jerusalim Post
Israel
September 2, 2004
One after another, victims of Tuesday's twin suicide bus bombing attacks in Beersheba, including a three year-old and several new immigrants, were laid to rest on Wednesday in the city's new and old cemeteries.
Tatiana Korchesko, 49, a mother of two, immigrated to Israel from Ukraine some five years ago. Korchesko was a doctor of biology but worked here as a cleaner for the Jewish Agency.
"She was a good person and a good worker who always had a smile on her face," Valentina, a close friend, told reporters at the funeral. "She helped a lot of people and she loved the country very much.
"Nobody thought it could happen to somebody like her because she was so full of life and everybody liked her... I still can't believe she's gone. We don't deserve this.
"People in Beersheba now are very sad. We didn't think terror would strike here, especially as it had been quiet for over six months," said Valentina. Korchesko is survived by her son and married daughter.
Denise Hadad, 50, mother of four, was laid to rest. Members of the family said Hadad had finished work at an old age home, and was on her way home from the mall, where she bought schoolbooks for her 14-year-old son.
Relatives and friends spoke of Hadad as being "a warmhearted and amazing woman of gold." She is survived by her husband and four children.
Aviel Atash, three, was buried at Beersheba's old cemetery.
At the city's new cemetery, another local resident, Rosa Lehman, 45, was laid to rest.
Shoshana Amos, 64, was laid to rest at the cemetery in Yavneh even though she lived in Beersheba and was well-known in the city, where she had worked for many years as an assistant in the welfare department of the municipality.
Relatives and neighbors described her as a "righteous woman" who cared for and helped everyone. She had been on her way to the hairdresser's in preparation for a family hina (henna) celebration that was to have taken place that night. Amos is survived by her husband and their four children, as well as grandchildren.
Karine Malka, 23, was an outstanding student at the Beersheba Engineering College and worked for the Jewish Agency with new immigrants, mainly from Ethiopia, was also buried at the city's new cemetery.
Malka was on her way to the Nurit absorption center in the city when she was murdered. Relatives and friends said she opposed violence in any form and fervently believed in the prospect of peace with the Palestinians.
Her brother, Yossi Malka, told reporters that she was very attached to the new immigrant children with whom she worked and to whom she also relayed her motto: "No to violence."Relatives and friends said she had dreamed of getting married and raising children of her own.
Her boyfriend, Shlomo Cohen, looked at the messages he had received from her on his cellphone shortly before the blast and his own request to her afterward to respond because he was very concerned.
At the same absorption center where Malka worked, residents felt a double loss.
Mother of six Tekele Tiroyaient, 33, was also killed.
Hundreds of members of the Ethiopian community gathered at the center prior to the funeral of the new immigrant mother, also at Beersheba's new cemetery, as social workers and friends tried to explain to her children what had happened.Tiroyaient had gone into town to buy school supplies for the children. She is survived by her husband and children.
Larisa Gomanenko, 48, was also laid to rest in the new cemetery of Beersheba, while Margareta Sokolov, 58, was to be buried in the cemetery of her home city, Ra'anana.
Eliyahu Ozan, 58, is to buried at the Beersheba cemetery on Thursday morning and Roman Sokolovsky, 53, is to be laid to rest in Ofakim in the afternoon.
Tamara Dibrashvilli, 70, is to be buried at the Beersheba cemetery on Thursday. Dibrashvilli leaves a large family, including 14 grandchildren.
Vitaly Brodsky, 52, is to be buried at the Beersheba cemetery on Thursday. His wife, Nargiza Oststrovsky, was also identified as a victim.
The last of the 16 victims had not been identified by press time.
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