Family of Ilana Naveh, who may have died of a heart attack at the scene, had objected to request; she, along with three other Sarona Market victims, will be buried Friday
Three of the Tel Aviv shooting victims were set to be laid to rest on Friday, after the High Court overnight Thursday-Friday rejected a police request to perform an autopsy on one of them.
The family of Ilana Naveh, 39, had objected on religious grounds to the police request to carry out a post-mortem examination. Police had argued that it was not immediately clear if Naveh had been killed by gunfire in the Sarona Market terror attack, with media reports suggesting she may have died of a heart attack at the scene.
The High Court sided with the family in a late-night ruling. The decision will likely have ramifications in the prosecution of the two terrorists, Palestinian relatives from the West Bank, who are in police custody.
Naveh, a mother of four from Tel Aviv, was to be buried early Friday.
“I’m amazed at this whole story. The litigation was unnecessary and unimportant,” Guy Nof, the family’s attorney, told Channel 2. “She definitely died as a result of the terror attack, she just didn’t get hit by the bullets. She collapsed on the scene.”
“The terrorists came with the intention to murder people; they caused the incident during which she died. This is murder par excellence.”
The family’s attorney told the TV station Naveh’s family wanted to hasten the burial to allow time for the traditional shiva mourning period. Under Jewish law, the seven days of mourning are cut short in the event of a major Jewish holiday. With the Shavuot holiday on Sunday, the family will have just one day to observe the traditional grief period, and were therefore pushing for the funeral to be held as soon as possible, he said.
“Here is a moment of comfort in this terrible tragedy,” a relative of Naveh’s told Channel 2, hailing the court decision.
The funerals for two other Sarona Market terror victims were also scheduled for Friday.
Mila Mishayev, 32, from Rishon Lezion, is due to be buried Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Ashkelon, Channel 2 News reported. Mishayev was set to be married in the near future, according to Ynet. She was waiting in the restaurant for her boyfriend when the attack took place. She was hit by bullets in her lower body and later died of her injuries. According to Ynet, Mishayev managed to call her boyfriend immediately after the attack.
Ben Gurion University professor Michael Feige, 58, from Ramat Gan will be buried on Friday at 1 p.m. in Rehovot.
The fourth Israeli killed in the Tel Aviv attack, Ido Ben Ari, was buried on Thursday.
Sixteen people were also hurt in the shooting spree at the popular complex, with four of them hospitalized in serious condition.
The two gunmen, cousins who came from the Palestinian town of Yatta in the southern West Bank, were caught shortly after the terror attack.
Since October, 33 Israelis and four others have been killed and hundreds more injured in the spate of attacks, though the violence had dramatically waned of late. Some 200 Palestinians have also been killed, some two-thirds of them while carrying out attacks and the rest in clashes with troops, Israeli officials say.
As reported by The Times of Israel