Family of Israel rave twin organizers buries one as other missing

Twin brothers Osher and Michael Vaknin organized rave parties across Israel, including the one close to the Gaza Strip, where a shock attack by Hamas fighters would leave one of them dead and the other missing.

Osher was buried in Jerusalem on Tuesday, while no signs of Michael have emerged since the weekend assault on the site by the Palestinian militants.

In the living room of their family home in Jerusalem, their loved ones were sitting shiva — the Jewish seven-day mourning ritual, grieving for Osher while still hoping for a sign of life of Michael.

“He’s coming home. I hope he hasn’t been kidnapped. It’ll kill us. It’s very, very painful,” said the twins’ sister Ausa Meir, 32.

Osher was killed as “he stopped the bullets for a friend, for a brother,” said Ausa, a French-Israeli mother of three.

Like thousands of Israeli men, her husband, an army reservist, was called to the front on Saturday morning.

The rave event organized by the twins had drawn thousands of party-goers from Friday to the desert site close to Kibbutz Reim, less than five kilometers (three miles) from the Gaza Strip.

But it turned into a horror show on Saturday morning when Hamas militants crossed the border on motorcycles, vans, speed boats or paramotors, launching their surprise offensive on Israel.

Around 250 people were killed at the site alone. Others were dragged into the Palestinian enclave as captives.

Aerial images obtained by AFP showed dozens of burnt-out cars on the side of the road leading to the festival site.
Sunny Vaknin, Osher’s widow, said she went to search for her husband on Monday.

“We thought he was still alive, we had hope. Finally, I found our car… and saw what had happened.

“The whole car was covered in blood. All the front windows were shattered. Full of bullet holes,” the widow said, shaking as she recounted the violent fate met by her husband, who was in his thirties.

“Everything was covered in blood. Pieces of flesh. Everything, my daughter’s car seat was covered in blood.”

No DNA traces –

The widower said a friend who survived the massacre had recalled seeing Osher “get out of the car to help people”.

“He was my whole life, really,” said Vaknin, describing her husband and brother-in-law as “great people” who “always wanted to make people happy”.

Around her, a group of young people, including some who survived the ordeal, sought to comfort her, voicing hopes that Michael is still alive.

“We didn’t find any traces of his DNA at the site,” said Sunny, voicing hope that the world would hear her plea and help to locate her brother-in-law.

Around 150 people were taken prisoner by Hamas. Not all their identities are known or have been made public. The channels of negotiation or discussion over their fate have so far been remained secretive.

Meir refused categorically to countenance the possibility that Michael had suffered the same fate as Osher.

Among the young people who were mourning with the family were survivors of the deadly attack. But they were too traumatized to talk about it.

Passing joints around, they sought to comfort each other.

One of the family’s friends, who declined to be named, said the brothers were known for organizing music parties in Israel, including “the biggest rave party” in the country.

At the synagogue round the corner from their home, the twins’ mother received visitors who had turned up to offer support.

Sitting on a low stool, according to the Jewish mourning tradition, she prayed for the return of her son Michael, who perhaps is still unaware that he has lost his twin brother forever.