Three toddlers killed in a house fire in Rahat on Saturday night were relatives of the cab driver shot dead in Tel Aviv on Friday, in a murder believed connected to the deadly shooting attack at a pub in the coastal city.
The three children were sleeping when a heater in their bedroom malfunctioned sparking the blaze, police confirmed Sunday. Their parents were next door and rushed over when they saw the smoke.
Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the three children to Soroka Hospital in critical condition, where they eventually succumbed to injuries incurred by smoke inhalation.
They have been identified as one-year-old Tawfiq, three-year-old Huda, and four-year-old Eden Abu Jafar.
The children's mother is a relative of Amin Shaban, a taxi driver from Lod whose body was found with bullet wounds about an hour after the shooting on Dizengoff Street occurred.
Police are still investigating the connection between Shaban's murder and the attack which killed Israelis Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi.
A relative opined to Yedioth Ahronoth that, "We have not recovered from the first disaster that fell upon us and today we have another very heavy disaster - the burning of three children."
"It really hurts us and we're finding it difficult to cope," the relative added. "We still don't know the background for Amin's murder."