Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat

Sept 9, 2003 - Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat, 39, of Pardes Hanna was one of eight IDF soldiers killed in a suicide bombing at a hitchhiking post for soldiers outside a main entrance to the Tzrifin army base and Assaf Harofeh Hospital. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bomber wore civilian clothes and carried a leather bag containing a 3-4 kilogram bomb. He got out of a car at the hitchhiking post, and almost immediately blew himself up, murdering eight and wounding 30.

Relatives said Ben-Shabbat had left the Tzrifin base earlier than usual, in order to pick up a birthday cake for his daughter Paz's eighth birthday party. "He intended to buy her presents on his way home," one related.

The Ben-Shabbats are a prominent family in Pardes Hanna, where CWO Ben-Shabbat's father, Avraham, is the cantor at a local synagogue. As the eldest of nine children, Yaakov "was the dominant one in the family," a relative said. "He would be consulted about everything. He loved the family and always looked out for it. Yaakov was especially close to his three children and loved people indiscriminately, whether they were Jews or Arabs."

A native of Pardes Hanna, Ben-Shabbat went to primary school there and graduated from high school in Kfar Batya. He performed his compulsory and regular military service in the air force, then seven years ago transferred to the regular army's training base for communications.

Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat was buried at the Pardes Hanna Military Cemetery. He is survived by his parents, two brothers, six sisters, wife Tanya, 32, daughter Paz, eight, son Yakir, seven, and daughter Aviv, 18 months.