House in mourning: Atar family in Psagot
House in mourning: Atar family in PsagotEliran Aharon

The court extended the remand of the driver of the jeep who on Tuesday hit a car belonging to the Atar family from Psagot, killing all eight members of the family.

The suspect driver was brought before a judge, who ruled he was suspected of using prohibited substances before getting behind the wheel.

Heavy mourning has been felt on the streets of Psagot in Binyamin since it became known that the entire Atar family was wiped out on their way to a family trip in southern Israel: Yariv was 45 and Shoshi was 47. The children were Yaakov Yisrael, 12; Ateret, 11; Ayala, 9; Moria, 7; Yedid, 5; and Avigail, 3.

The eight members of the family will be laid to rest at 14:30 in the Netanya cemetery.

Yariv worked for a computer company and his wife Shoshi was a special education teacher at Keren Or in Jerusalem. The children attended elementary school and preschools in Psagot and the eldest son attended the Yeshiva High School in Mateh Binyamin in Beit El.

The Atar couple arrived in Psagot about 13 years ago, not long after their wedding. The family lived in the Ai neighborhood and about two years ago moved to the central neighborhood and established their place in the community.

"A noble family that surrounded everyone around them with their joy, they were people of kindness on an unimaginable level." Rabbi Yosef Weitzen, the rabbi of the village, said. "We have to do a soul-searching - but soul searching for eight people I don't know how to do."

Miriam Dadon, a close friend of the late Shoshi Atar, eulogized her, "Instead of getting a happy embrace for my son's Bar Mitzvah, we'll have to give another kind of hug. She was an island of sanity who always thought for the good."