Noam Leibowitz

June 17, 2003 - Noam Leibowitz, 7, of Yemin Orde was killed and three members of her family wounded in a shooting attack near the Kibbutz Eyal junction on the Trans-Israel Highway.

In the first terrorist shooting on the Trans-Israel Highway, a terrorist managed to get under a cement wall separating the highway from Kalkilya, and opened fire at the Leibowitz car at around 11:30 P.M. Eight members of the family were in the vehicle, returning home from a bar mitzva celebration in Jerusalem. Noam Leibowitch was killed. Her sister, Shira, who celebrated her third birthday that day, sustained moderate wounds. Noam's 11-year-old brother Moshe and 70-year-old grandfather were lightly wounded.

The family, originally from Netanya, returned to Israel two years ago after spending four years in the United States. Shlomo Leibowitz was appointed deputy director of the Yemin Orde Wingate Youth Village, a religious boarding school on the Carmel, and his wife Galit is a teacher there. The entire family lived in the village, and their home was open to everyone.

Chaim Peri, the director of Yemin Orde, said that everyone there knew Noam, who was a happy girl - "a small girl with a large soul." Noam was laid to rest on the day on which the Youth Village was to have celebrated the annual graduation ceremony, which was postponed.

Noam Leibowitz was buried in Moshav Nir Etzion cemetery. She is survived by her parents, Shlomo and Galit, her brother, two sisters, and grandparents.