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CNN Live At Daybreak

Story of One Man in Middle East

Aired January 22, 2003 - 05:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And for millions around the world, the seemingly constant violence in the Middle East is nothing more than pictures on the evening news. But for those who live with the fear and the death every day, brings reminders of pain and loss.
Our Mike Hanna has one man's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A cold winter's day on the Kibbutz Metzer and Avi O'Hayon arrives at what was the home of his ex-wife and two children. He's here to pack up the belongings of 34-year-old Revital and their two little boys, Matan, aged five, and Noam, aged four. They are dead, shot by a Palestinian gunman.

We are here at Avi's invitation. His mother weeps in the children's bedroom, that has been left virtually untouched since the attack in November last year. The door still bearing the mark of the foot that kicked it open.

"My beauties, my beauties," weeps Avi. "Oh, his smell is still here. His pajamas. Oh, the smell. How I miss the smell. I miss them."

It was on the night of November the 10th that the calm of Kibbutz Metzer was shattered by a lone Palestinian armed with an automatic weapon. He first shot Tirza Damari, who was out walking with her boyfriend Uri Ronen.

URI RONEN, KIBBUTZ MEMBER: Then my girlfriend fell down. I fell down with her. I tried to take her hand, but I think she was, she died the same minute. She even didn't say nothing. I think the woman who lived here, it's hard to say. She heard our shouting. I think she turned on the light maybe.

HANNA: The gunman turned away from Uri Ronen towards the house where the light was showing, the house of Revital Ohayon. The next door neighbor, Ela Levenstein, heard Revital shout out one word, "Mother!" Then came more shots as the gunman opened fire on Revital and her children at point blank range.

ELA LEVENSTEIN, KIBBUTZ RESIDENT: She was sitting on one of the beds of the children and she just, it was two beds. So she took the smaller one to the bigger one and she was sitting and holding the two children.

HANNA: Back outside, the gunman then shot and killed 44-year-old Yitzhak Dori before escaping. The killer still has not been tracked down.

Before that night, Uri Ronen always believed in the possibility of peaceful coexistence.

RONEN: And I thought...

HANNA: Looking through the possessions he shared with a partner now dead, he says this belief has changed.

RONEN: Now I think a good relationship doesn't give you security. It doesn't say that if you have a good relationship, someone else can take advantage and do something bad.

HANNA: In the winter cold, Uri commiserates with Avi Ohayon and members of his family. "We have to be super strong. We have to be made of iron to get through things like this," he tells Avi's brother- in-law, who answers, "Iron can also be bent and the iron also gets hot. It gets rusty. It is destroyed. How much can one carry? The only solution," continues the brother-in-law, "is war."

"Separate once and for all," says Uri, "and that is it."

For Avi Ohayon, though, this is not a time for political debate. It's time for grieving, struggling with what he has lost.

OHAYON: I can't feel any wonder now because all the wonders for me now are black. Every point here is filled, still filled with their life, with their being and -- the closet with the videos, with the children's videos, their closet with their clothes, their toys, everything is still full of them.

So I always want them to be famous now. That's what I want. Because they weren't given the opportunity to be famous by themselves. And I need people to know them and to think what they have lost because when the lights will turn off and everyone will forget me, because there will be another one today or next week or whenever, and there'll be a news story. I still need them to be known.

HANNA: Remembered, Noam Ohayon, aged four, and his brother Matan, aged five.

Mike Hanna, CNN, on the Kibbutz Metzer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 22, 2003 - 05:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And for millions around the world, the seemingly constant violence in the Middle East is nothing more than pictures on the evening news. But for those who live with the fear and the death every day, brings reminders of pain and loss.
Our Mike Hanna has one man's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A cold winter's day on the Kibbutz Metzer and Avi O'Hayon arrives at what was the home of his ex-wife and two children. He's here to pack up the belongings of 34-year-old Revital and their two little boys, Matan, aged five, and Noam, aged four. They are dead, shot by a Palestinian gunman.

We are here at Avi's invitation. His mother weeps in the children's bedroom, that has been left virtually untouched since the attack in November last year. The door still bearing the mark of the foot that kicked it open.

"My beauties, my beauties," weeps Avi. "Oh, his smell is still here. His pajamas. Oh, the smell. How I miss the smell. I miss them."

It was on the night of November the 10th that the calm of Kibbutz Metzer was shattered by a lone Palestinian armed with an automatic weapon. He first shot Tirza Damari, who was out walking with her boyfriend Uri Ronen.

URI RONEN, KIBBUTZ MEMBER: Then my girlfriend fell down. I fell down with her. I tried to take her hand, but I think she was, she died the same minute. She even didn't say nothing. I think the woman who lived here, it's hard to say. She heard our shouting. I think she turned on the light maybe.

HANNA: The gunman turned away from Uri Ronen towards the house where the light was showing, the house of Revital Ohayon. The next door neighbor, Ela Levenstein, heard Revital shout out one word, "Mother!" Then came more shots as the gunman opened fire on Revital and her children at point blank range.

ELA LEVENSTEIN, KIBBUTZ RESIDENT: She was sitting on one of the beds of the children and she just, it was two beds. So she took the smaller one to the bigger one and she was sitting and holding the two children.

HANNA: Back outside, the gunman then shot and killed 44-year-old Yitzhak Dori before escaping. The killer still has not been tracked down.

Before that night, Uri Ronen always believed in the possibility of peaceful coexistence.

RONEN: And I thought...

HANNA: Looking through the possessions he shared with a partner now dead, he says this belief has changed.

RONEN: Now I think a good relationship doesn't give you security. It doesn't say that if you have a good relationship, someone else can take advantage and do something bad.

HANNA: In the winter cold, Uri commiserates with Avi Ohayon and members of his family. "We have to be super strong. We have to be made of iron to get through things like this," he tells Avi's brother- in-law, who answers, "Iron can also be bent and the iron also gets hot. It gets rusty. It is destroyed. How much can one carry? The only solution," continues the brother-in-law, "is war."

"Separate once and for all," says Uri, "and that is it."

For Avi Ohayon, though, this is not a time for political debate. It's time for grieving, struggling with what he has lost.

OHAYON: I can't feel any wonder now because all the wonders for me now are black. Every point here is filled, still filled with their life, with their being and -- the closet with the videos, with the children's videos, their closet with their clothes, their toys, everything is still full of them.

So I always want them to be famous now. That's what I want. Because they weren't given the opportunity to be famous by themselves. And I need people to know them and to think what they have lost because when the lights will turn off and everyone will forget me, because there will be another one today or next week or whenever, and there'll be a news story. I still need them to be known.

HANNA: Remembered, Noam Ohayon, aged four, and his brother Matan, aged five.

Mike Hanna, CNN, on the Kibbutz Metzer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com