Yosef Salomon and his children, Haya and Elad, were laid to rest in the Modiin cemetery Sunday afternoon. They were murdered in a barbaric terrorist attack as they sat down for Shabbat dinner in the Samaria town of Halamish Friday night.
Elad's wife, Michal, managed to hide her five children in one of the rooms on the top floor of the house, preventing the terrorist from finding them and massacring the children along with the other members of the family.
"Michal suffered a very serious trauma," her father, Dan Landa, told Channel 10.
"The terrorist threatened her life and the lives of her children. And she is also traumatized from hearing the cries of agony from her family as they were being slaughtered with knives and from the understanding that her beloved husband is gone.
"The way she reacted during those fateful minutes stuns me every time I think about it. She was in an ideal family situation, sitting relaxed and happy at a family event, when a man dressed in fine Shabbat clothes came in - seemingly to celebrate with them, and in an instant she recognized that this was a terrorist who was there to kill," Landa said.
"She immediately told the children to be quiet and took them [upstairs]. She said that she ran away, but it wasn't out to the street. She had to go behind the terrorist's back to get to the stairs. She went into the room where the two other children were. She has five children, the two who were sleeping and the three who were with her downstairs.
Landa also said that Elad defended his wife and children from the terrorist and that he died buying them time to get upstairs.
He added that when the attack was over Michal led the children, out of the house. She had the children cover their heads with blanketsso they would not see the carnage the terrorist left in his wake. "She herself saw the house full of blood. She saw her husband lying on the floor, completely perforated."
Michal related in an interview with Yediot Aharonot: “I saw the profile of a person coming towards the kitchen. The terrorist, apparently, saw them through the window and entered the house. He didn’t see me, and came directly at them. I heard him ask them in Arabic: ‘What’s your name?’ and I immediately understood that something wasn’t right. That something bad was happening.”
“I immediately took the 3 children upstairs, where [the two youngest children] the twins were sleeping. It was important that I, first of all, protect the children no matter what. I started to hear shouts and screams. I held the door with all of my strength, because it wasn’t locked. I lost my sense of time, but I didn’t let go of the doorknob.
“I called the Police and told them what was happening as my children surrounded me. I heard terrible screams and shots, and after a period which seemed endless, I understood that it was over. I came downstairs and saw Elad. I understood that my husband was no longer alive.”