Wounded recount terror in Tel Aviv pub
One wounded man lost his dog in the commotion and found him with the help of strangers; several witnesses and wounded were attending a birthday party, whose guest of honor remains shaken.
A day after a terrorist murdered two people in a Tel Aviv pub, several Israelis were still hospitalized, while others were back home and still reeling from the horrifying shooting. Among the wounded were several friends of Shimon Ruimi, who was killed while attending a birthday party for one of the wounded.
"We feel relieved now that he finished the difficult, critical series of surgeries," said Tzahi Luzon, whose brother Ido was wounded in the attack on Saturday. He said Ido had been on the way to a birthday party. "To the best of my knowledge he was simply passing by coincidentally and was at the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
Before he was evacuated to the hospital, Ido asked friends to find his dog, Django. "He was with him at the scene and disappeared," said Tzahi. "We didn't know where he'd disappeared to and put up a Facebook post that ended up going ultra-viral. I want to say thank you to all the people who went outside for look for him. We did it because we knew the first thing Ido would do when he woke up was to ask where Django was."
32-year-old Tel Aviv resident Uriah Ron found Django hours after the terror attack in an apartment building stairwell. "I went to visit a friend who lives two buildings away from the attack on Dizengoff Street and saw a ginger dog in the stairwell, wet and shaking from the cold," said Ron. "I thought someone might have gone upstairs and left him there for a few minutes. I went home after the visit and when I arrived at Gordon Street I asked myself, what was that dog doing there? I returned to the building and it seemed strange that there was a dog there and no one had touched him or was watching him."
Uriah called a friend who supports animal welfare. "She immediately sent Ido's brother's post to me and I realized it was the same day," he said. "I contacted a friend who knows the family, and after a few minutes someone arrived and took the dog to be examined. He was so hungry, cold miserable and exhausted that he ate cat food. I hope he gets back to Ido and that they both get better."
25-year-old Hadar Klein from Ramat Gan was at the pub when the terrorist opened fire. Like many others at the pub, she had arrived to celebrate a friend's birthday and ended up in the line of fire. "The shots just didn't stop," she recalled. "I tried to further into the bar. Two rounds hit me in one side and came out the other. One of them fortunately missed the main artery by a centimeter."
Ariel Nusbacher, whose birthday party was being held at the pub at the time of the attack, was released from the hospital on Friday evening after being lightly wounded. "I still need to digest what happened to me," he said. His mother said victim Shimon Ruimi was a very close friend and that Ariel was taking his death very hard. "I can barely talk to him," she said, "he says, 'mom, I want to be alone.'"
Israel Avitan, also lightly wounded in the attack, recounted the shooting: "I was sitting inside inside and then two friends went to the bathroom and the friend who I just heard was killed went outside to smoke. I didn't want to stay by myself so I sat with him. I heard shots and felt something burning my back. I fell and didn't see anyone standing up. I crawled into the pub and all the chairs were overturned. We got everyone and went into the kitchen. My brother called the MDA."
