Gastón Perpiñal

Nov 4, 2002 - Gastón Perpiñal, 15, of Ra'anana, who immigrated with his parents recently from Argentina, was one of two persons killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself at a Kfar Sava shopping mall.

Gastón, a tenth grader at the Ostrovsky High School in Ra'anana, was killed together with a friend, mall security guard Julio Pedro Magram, 51, of Kfar Sava, another recent immigrant from Argentina. About 70 people were wounded in the attack, for which the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Gastón was described by his friends as quiet and personable, with a ready smile. He was active in the Halutz youth movement in his native Cordoba and in Israel. He had gone to play basketball at a school in Kfar Sava and stopped at the Arim Mall on his way home to call on Magram, who lived with the mother of a classmate.

A friend relates that Gastón was the driving force behind his parents' moving to Israel. "If you don't make aliya to Israel, I'll go alone," he would say, "Israel is the Jewish state." The family arrived with Gaston, their only child, on April 10, 2002, and took up residence in the Jewish Agency absorption center in Ra'anana. They were about to move into their new apartment in Kfar Sava.

Gastón Perpiñal is survived by his parents, Gustavo and Cecilia. He was buried at the Kfar Sava Cemetery.