On Friday evening, friends arrived from all over the country - from Mishmar Hayarden, Tiberias, Shlomi, Jerusalem and Kfar Sava - for a surprise birthday party of their friend Yaron Grayevsky at the Stage Club in Tel Aviv. As young men in their 20s and 30s from the Golani, Givati and Nahal Brigades, they met eight years ago in an IDF reserves battalion and became fast friends. Just after 11 P.M., when Yaron was still waiting at a nearby hotel, the suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance to the club.
All five of those killed in the attack were attending the birthday party: Itzik from Mishmar Hayarden, whose wife Linda was severely injured, Ronen, who organized the battalion's reunions, Arik, who was the joker in the group, and Yael Orbach from Kfar Sava, who came to celebrate with her boyfriend, Ofir Gonen, and Odelia, who together with her friend Revital Grayevsky, organized the surprise party for Yaron. Fifty people were wounded.
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. IDF sources said the cell that dispatched the suicide bomber, Abdallah Badran, 21, a student from the village of Deir al Ghusun near Tul Karm, received its instructions directly from Damascus.
Among those who issued condemnations was UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who issued a statement of sharp condemnation that expressed the hope that the terrorist attack would not be allowed to hurt the positive steps that have been taken recently by both sides. Also issuing condemnations were US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleeza Rice and EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, who called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to condemn the attack without reservation.
The German, British, Italian and Russian foreign ministers also referred to the attack; all of them condemned it and said that the Palestinian leadership must continue its efforts to prevent terrorism and violence. Foreign Minister Shalom also detailed the responses to the attack in the Arab world.
Yael Orbach
Odelia Hubara