Victor Sorokopot, 32, and Dimitri Mitrik, 24, were named as the two Ukrainian nationals killed in a shootout in Bnei Brak on Tuesday.
The two were killed while sitting outside a grocery store on the city’s Bialik Street when terrorist Diaa Hamarsheh, 26, opened fire.
“He was a really good person. We were married for almost six years,” Victor’s wife Kristina, who lived with him in Bnei Brak, told Channel 12 News. “We don’t have children… I don’t know what to do because there are a lot of problems in Ukraine.”
The two men were foreign construction workers who both lived in the city.
Vasily, Mitrik’s cousin, told Channel 12 that he found out about Mitrik’s death from a friend who witnessed the attack.
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“Yesterday I also wanted to shop there. We’re in this store all day,” he said.
“We couldn’t believe something like this would happen in Bnei Brak. A friend of ours was there and saw her being shot at. He called us 10 minutes after the incident and told us.”
A member of the Zaka rescue and recovery team removes blood from the spot where a terrorist opened fire in Bnei Brak March 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Vasily said Mitrik has been in Israel for three or four years.
“We could go to Belgium or Romania now,” he added.
On Wednesday morning, friends of Sorokopot and Mitrik arrived at the scene of the attack to mourn.
They avoided a protest against Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held outside the grocery store and told Haaretz they came to Israel with Sorokopot and Mitrik in search of a better life.
“We were neighbors in Ukraine. We’re like family,” said one of them, asking not to be identified. “We came here to earn money and build a house. The situation in Ukraine is difficult and many of our friends are trying to come as well,” he said, noting that they might reconsider staying in Israel after the attack.
Another friend, Julian, said Sorokopot and his wife would consider returning to Ukraine after the war.
“It’s dangerous here and dangerous there. I don’t know where to go anymore,” he said.
“Yesterday I told Dimitri that I want to get out of here and come back to Ukraine,” said another friend. “He said to me, ‘Don’t go back. It’s better here because it’s safer.” He liked living in Israel, he felt safe here.”
On Tuesday, the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel issued a statement condemning the “heinous” terrorist attack and confirming that Mitrik and Sorokopot were among the dead.
“It is with deep sadness that we confirm that two citizens of Ukraine were among the victims,” the embassy said in a Facebook post. “We extend our condolences and sympathy to the families of the deceased. The upscale [sic] of violence and terrorism is unacceptable and must be stopped.”
The other three victims were police officers Amir Khoury, 32, Ya’akov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 30.
Shalom and Yehezkel were buried in Bnei Brak earlier Wednesday.
Three of the victims of the deadly attack in Bnei Brak on March 29, 2022 left to right Amir Khoury, Avishai Yehezkel and Ya’akov Shalom (courtesy)
Hundreds of people gathered for the funeral of Rabbi Yehezkel, a yeshiva student who was taking an evening stroll with his two-year-old son in his stroller when he was shot at.
He leaves behind his wife, who is eight months pregnant, and his son.
Yehezkel had reportedly taken the young child out into the street in his stroller to put the boy to sleep.
A few hours later, crowds gathered for the funeral of Shalom, a father of four. Shalom was driving home when Hamarsheh stopped his car and opened fire on him at point-blank range.
Shalom was the son of Rabbi Meir Shalom, a prominent leader of the Yemeni community in Bnei Brak, who died of COVID last year.
Mourners at the funeral of Ya’akov Shalom, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Bnei Brak, March 30, 2022 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The funeral of Khoury, the Arab-Israeli police officer who was killed in a shootout with the terrorist, is scheduled to take place in Nof Hagalil on Thursday.
According to Channel 12 news, a Haredi delegation from Bnei Brak is expected to attend the funeral as a show of respect and gratitude.
Khoury was serving on the Bnei Brak Police Station Motorcyclists’ Response Team and was one of the officers who caught up with the gunman and killed him, ending the deadly rampage.
Khoury was hit in the gunfire and later died after being taken to Beilinson Medical Center, officials said.
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