Teen restaurant workers survived two bombings

FIGHTING his fear, teenager Jachun Ismailov went back to work at a Tel Aviv falafel restaurant after a January bombing there to support his family which has struggled since immigrating to Israel from Azerbaijan.

Lying in a hospital bed on Monday after the second bombing at the restaurant killed nine people, the quiet 17-year-old said that, once again, he would have no choice but to go back to work if the owners decide to re-open.

"I was very afraid to return to work there" after the first attack, said Ismailov, who was injured in the hand and back.

"But later, the economic situation at home was not good and I came back."

His cousin, David Manshirov, 17, who was a cook at the restaurant and was injured in both bombings said: "If I don't work, who will pay the rent?"

The guard, Benny Hafuta, 47, was hired only days after the previous bombing in which 20 people were injured to ensure that another bomber would never get into the restaurant. Hafuta's family had repeatedly tried to get him to quit, afraid the restaurant would be targeted again.

"There is no such thing as an attack two times in one place," Mr Hafuta told them, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported.

Mr Hafuta was searching the bomber before letting him enter the restaurant when his hand-held metal detector went off.

Then the bomber detonated the explosives. A French tourist and two Romanian women who were working in Israel were also killed.

The casualties included a 16-year-old American boy who was fighting for his life yesterday after doctors operated on him most of the night, said Karen Bronner, a spokeswoman for the Tel Aviv Medical Center. His injuries were mostly to his stomach and internal organs and his aorta was torn.

Just before the bombing, Radmila Shaulov, the pregnant wife of one of the victims, thought she was going into labour. She called her husband, David, and they agreed to meet at a Tel Aviv hospital. But when she arrived, she heard he might have been killed.

Against doctors' advice, Ms Shaulov, who was not actually in labour, rushed to a forensic centre and found out her husband was dead. Israeli newspapers yesterday published pictures of her sobbing, collapsed in a chair outside the centre.