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American Morning

Interview of Jan Vanderhoeven, Family Member of Bombing Victim

Aired December 06, 2001 - 09:41   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: For everyone who dies in the Middle East violence, Palestinian or Israeli, there obviously is a grieving family member. For Jan Vanderhoeven, the suicide bombings in Israel last weekend became sharply personal. An 18-year-old member of her family, Yosef El-Ezra was killed in the attack on a pedestrian mall in Jerusalem. The family's grief, she says, is unimaginable. Jan Vanderhoeven joins us now from Jerusalem. Thank you so much for being with us today.

JAN VANDERHOEVEN, RELATIVE OF BOMBING VICTIM: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: So, Jan, can you describe to us what happened to Yosef, as best you know?

VANDERHOEVEN: Well, Yosef El-Ezra, who is a cousin of my wife, he last Saturday evening, he just walked around in the city, just having a good time, I think they sat even at a cafe, downtown in Jerusalem, and Yose (ph), as we call him here, was just walking down the street, when suddenly one of the bomb attacks, one of the bombers exploded themself, and on that instant, nothing happened to him, but he ran away, and he ran straight into the second bomber -- suicide bomber, and was very close to that explosion, which after that, he died.

ZAHN: And how long was it before his family understood that they had lost him?

VANDERHOEVEN: Well, his family always took very -- like any family would do, took very much care of their oldest son. And they didn't even want to let him out because they were really some high tension here in Israel. So, immediately after they heard of the bomb attack, they tried to phone his cell phone and couldn't get an answer, and did that for about half an hour. And then went to the hospitals here and they didn't find their son, they were called up until 4:00 in the morning, which is about six hours later.

ZAHN: Jan, I hate to do this to you. I'm going to have to interrupt our conversation.

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