Gilad Niv

Oct 7, 2004 - Gilad and Lior Nir, 11 and 3, of Rakefet were killed along with their mother Tzila in the terror bombing at the Hilton Hotel in Taba - one of two tourist sites in Sinai hit the same night.

At around 22:00, a blast ripped through the Hilton Hotel in the resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel. The powerful blast was caused by car bomb which exploded at the entrance to the hotel, containing an estimated 250-300 kg of explosives, causing the collapse of part of the hotel. At about 23:30, two additional explosions occurred in the camping area of of Ras a-Satan, located about 45 kilometers south.

Tzila and her husband, Zohar Niv were vacationing at the Taba Hilton Hotel with their four children - 18-year-old twins Sharon and Yael, and the boys - Gilad, 11, and Lior, 3. Tzila was putting the boys to bed when the explosion occurred, and their 9th floor room collapsed. Zohar, seriously wounded, found his twin daughters, who were in an adjacent room, unharmed. Tzila and the two young boys were killed.

Irit Amit, principal of the Misgav elementary school, which Gilad attended, talked of his blue laughing eyes. "He was very sociable, wanted to be a part of everything. He was gifted at drawing and enjoyed ice skating. He communicated well with adults, and whenever he met me in the street would ask how I was. When I asked him in turn, he always replied: Wonderful!"

Three-year-old Lior, the youngest of the family, had just started attending the local nursery school.

Gilad and Lior Niv will be buried with their mother Tzila in Holon. They are survived by their father, Zohar, and their two sisters, Sharon and Yael, 18.