The parents and their six children were driving on near the Dead Sea on their way to a family trip have been identified as the Atar family.
Yariv was 45, Shoshi was 47, and the children were Yaakov Israel, 12, Ateret, 11, Ayala, 9, Moriah, 7, Yedid, 5, and Avigail, 3 years old.
Yariv worked at a computer company, and his wife Shoshi was a special education teacher at Keren Or in Jerusalem. The children attended elementary school and preschools in Psagot and the eldest son attended the Yeshiva High School of Mateh Binyamin in Beit El.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the tragedy, saying “heart is torn as an entire family has been wiped out.”
“My wife Sarah and I grieve with all the citizens of Israel for the lives that were lost,” he wrote on Twitter. “Today, when many Israeli citizens take advantage of the sabbatical day for day-trips, I ask you to do everything in order to return home safely.”
“An entire family was wiped out today in a terrible disaster,” Yuli Edelstein (Likud), speaker of the Knesset, said in a statement. “The future of six children was abruptly cut off. I send a warm hug to my friends, residents of Psagot and to the family members who lost their children and grandchildren in the great disaster.”
You citizens of Israel, especially those who took advantage of the day for a short trip: travel slowly and safely and return home safely,” his statement read.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}
GEVALD!!!! we cant read a story like this and continue browsing eim al bonim , charon af! i am talking to myself…try for a moment to imagine it was mishpochoh
What a beautiful family. Hashem yirachem – there are no words.
Time to get much stricter with cell phone use, including allowing citizens to report driver use. A lot more will get caught, until people just stop. And it’s not just holding the phone or texting, it’s also dialing and otherwise touching the phone. It’s not like fiddling with the buttons of the radio, because no one’s worried that the radio will fall down and there’s much less to do on a radio. Raise the fines till they go through the roof and include prison terms in the event of repeat felony.
“try for a moment to imagine it was mishpochoh”, you surely meant: try for a moment to imagine this existing mishpochoh of ours was immediate family.
The winding roads in Israel are 3rd world and terribly dangerous.