Gila Sara Kessler

June 19, 2002 - Gila Sara Kessler, 19, of Eli, was one of seven people killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem shortly after 7:00 P.M.

The bomber jumped out of a car at the French Hill junction and, as Border Patrolmen on duty at the scene began to approach him, he ran past them toward the crowded bus stop on the eastern side of the road, setting off the bomb he was carrying in a crowd of people. Three Israelis and four others died in hospital. About 50 were wounded by shrapnel that was packed around the explosive, with several in critical and serious condition, including one of the Border Patrolmen who had tried to stop

Gila Kessler grew up in Eli. A gifted gymnast and swimmer, she attended the High School for the Arts in Jerusalem, majoring in dance, and completed her high school studies in the United States.

Gila was in the first year of her national service, in the framework of the Jewish Agency, in a project of on-line learning with Jewish communities abroad. Her parents were divorced several years ago, and her father lives in the United States. The eldest in the family, she lived at home in order to help her mother rather than staying in the apartment in Jerusalem provided by the national service. She was killed on her way home.

Gila Kessler was buried in Eli. She is survived by her parents, a brother and two sisters.