Two-year-old Hadar Noga Lavi, who was criticallly injured in a collision caused by a Palestinian Arab driver who veered into the oncoming lane in which her mother was driving near the city of Ofra in the Biynamin region, died this morning (Friday) in Shaare Zedek hospital.
Her funeral was held at the Shiloh cemetery at noon on Friday. Mourners attended from all over Israel. Hadar's late great grandmother was the sister of Arutz Sheva's Rochel Sylvetsky. Her great grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and wounded veteran of Israel's 1948 War of Independence.
The head of the Binyamin Council Yisrael Gantz commented: "A little sister of all of us died a week after an Arab driver ran into her savagely. We embrace and support the dear Lavi family.”
Idit Lavi, the toddler's mother and a resident of Shiloh, told Israel National News this week that she is convinced the collision was an act of terror: "On Saturday night, Hadar hurt herself and needed stitches, and we drove to Shaare Zedek to get her treated. In the morning, on the way home, at quarter to seven, shortly after we passed Ofra, a car entered my lane. The driver looked at me, I turned into his lane, he returned to his lane, I returned back to my lane and then he ran into me head-on.”
"He didn't hesitate. He had a very clear goal and immediately after the vehicle stopped turning and turning, Arabs surrounded him and told him, 'Well done, well done.' I was certain they were going to lynch me, and called the MDA. I was hysterical, and said there was an accident and they are going to kill me and that they should come quickly. Three vehicles behind me was an ambulance that saw and arrived quickly, and they helped us.”
Returning to the moments when her vehicle was surrounded by a threatening Arab crowd, she commented, "They surrounded my car and said in Hebrew 'Well done', 'Well done'. The vehicle was upside down after several overturns. When the ambulance arrived, they gathered around the terrorist and tried to get the ambulance to treat him and not us."
In Idit’s opinion, there is no doubt that the Arab driver is a terrorist. "An Arab who drove into my lane and changed direction repeatedly until he managed to hit me - I have no doubts as to his intentions."