Miri Visushnik, 13, who was lightly hurt in the Taba Hilton attack, told Arutz-7's Moshe Priel: "We arrived at the Hilton on Wednesday [the day before the attack], and it was fun. The hotel was full of guests... [On Thursday night,] I went down with my stepfather to the dining room, and my mother was getting ready in the room. A minute later, a giant explosion rocked the whole place, and all the windows broke. My father took me to the beach, and then went up to get my mother and all our stuff." David, the stepfather, then continued, "It's hard for me to describe the terrible sights I saw on my way upstairs to get my wife: crushed bodies, smoke, darkness... Those minutes seemed like an eternity, but I won't go into the details. I found my wife, took our stuff, and we quickly made it to our car, which was hit by shrapnel, and we loaded up five other people and drove to the border and made it into Israel. From there we went to Soroka [the Be'er Sheva hospital], where we were termed lightly wounded. Thank G-d we were in the dining room..."
The story for 18-year-old twin sisters Yael and Sharon Niv, of the Galilee town of Rakefet, near Sakhnin and Carmiel, ended much more tragically. Yediot Acharonot reported that they were in their room on the 9th floor of the hotel, with their parents and two younger brothers in the adjacent room, when the explosion occurred. They quickly ran to the next room, opened the door - and saw nothing but an abyss and darkness, with unidentified cries coming from below.
The girls, who celebrated their 18th birthday just two days before, do not even remember how they left the hotel, crossed the border by foot, and reached the center for families of missing victims that the Eilat Municipality opened. They found their father listed as wounded in Yoseftal Hospital - but found no word of their mother, Tzila, nor of their brothers Gilad, 11, and Lior, 3. Their father is now in Tel HaShomer Hospital, and the girls are at their grandparents in nearby Ramat Gan. This morning, their hopes for a miracle came crashing down when word came that the dead bodies of their mother and brothers had been found and identified.
The story for 18-year-old twin sisters Yael and Sharon Niv, of the Galilee town of Rakefet, near Sakhnin and Carmiel, ended much more tragically. Yediot Acharonot reported that they were in their room on the 9th floor of the hotel, with their parents and two younger brothers in the adjacent room, when the explosion occurred. They quickly ran to the next room, opened the door - and saw nothing but an abyss and darkness, with unidentified cries coming from below.
The girls, who celebrated their 18th birthday just two days before, do not even remember how they left the hotel, crossed the border by foot, and reached the center for families of missing victims that the Eilat Municipality opened. They found their father listed as wounded in Yoseftal Hospital - but found no word of their mother, Tzila, nor of their brothers Gilad, 11, and Lior, 3. Their father is now in Tel HaShomer Hospital, and the girls are at their grandparents in nearby Ramat Gan. This morning, their hopes for a miracle came crashing down when word came that the dead bodies of their mother and brothers had been found and identified.