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| Dvir Shnerb, brother of recent terror victim Rina |
Q. Dvir is now recovering, having acted very heroically at the scene of the attack, and we are now very, very happy to have you here with us, looking healthy and smiling. Dvir, how do you feel now?
A. Thank G-d, all the shrapnel has been taken out - three pieces in my hand, and one big piece – which is why my condition was termed "serious" – in my stomach. The doctors said that it was really quite miraculous, as the piece of shrapnel hit some very critical organs and cut them, but didn't go too far in.
Q. Physically you really look very good. But emotionally – are you still living through what happened then? Do you have flashbacks, thoughts, dreams?
A. First of all, when someone close to you is killed, you naturally feel a real longing, especially when it's quiet. I don't think so much about the specific incident, but more of a longing for and connection with Rina. As far as the incident itself goes, I think that because we did there what we were supposed to, and in the right way, I don't view it as something scary or something to have nightmares about and the like.
Q. What do you remember? Your father said that what he remembers right before it happened is that you asked him to quiz you on the First Aid medics course you were taking.
A. The truth is that this tiyul [hike] really started when we decided to go somewhere together because of that course that I was taking during the summer. We were trying to decide where to go, and Rina sort of decided for us: "Let's go to Maayan Danny!" I had never been there, and she had been there a few times. It's a place that it is important to go to; as is known, it’s in memory of Danny Gonen [murdered by Palestinian terrorists four years ago], from a family in Lod that we are very close to, and it became sort of like a place that "belongs" to the people of Lod.
Q. You got there early, even before the IDF force arrived for protection.
A. Right, my father always emphasized that we go only to safe places – those that are both important to go to and that are safe to go to. We called the security office before we got there and received confirmation that it was OK to go. To our sorrow, though, not every spot in Israel can be perfectly guarded.
Q. What is the last thing you remember from that day?
A. I know that I lost consciousness before we got to the hospital. I remember everything that happened before I lost consciousness, including the explosion itself. It was a situation that was most unpleasant.
Q. What can you do in such a situation, seeing your father wounded, and your sister, and you're wounded ---
A. I did not really get right away what was happening. My father did - maybe because he experienced something like this before; he knew immediately that it was a bomb and a terrorist attack. He right away made sure to get me next to him and that I shouldn't go anywhere because there might be other terrorists around, etc. – he was already planning ahead. I wasn't in that frame of mind at all. But then when we sat there near Rina, and we realized what had happened, he said - and these were his first words, I remember them clearly: "We'll be strong for Rina, and for the Nation of Israel." This was really what he said at that moment. And then we were just sitting there for a while, and my father put the tourniquet on me, and I put my fist on the wound on my stomach where the shrapnel entered [to stop the bleeding], and we both were sitting there until the rescue team came. These really were 19 minutes that are engraved in my memory. We were giving each other tips – I told him to take off his pants so it would be easier for the medics to treat him, and he was trying to stop my bleeding from my hand, and he was kissing and stroking Rina, and telling her that we would watch over her and continue her path.
Q. When I spoke to your father in the hospital, he couldn't stop saying how amazed he was at your composure during that time. You're a boy only 19 years old, who has just seen what happened to his sister, and sees his father wounded, and you're in terrible pain from the shrapnel wounds – and yet you were able to 'run the event,' take charge, tell him who to call, what to do. How?
A. I don't think I was 'running the event,' but just naturally doing what a person does in such an incident. I think it might be something that G-d gives everyone – this ability to function in such situations and… possibly because of the desire to survive; I knew I was also wounded – so I felt the need to strengthen myself, to breathe, to strengthen my father; you're not thinking too much about that specific moment, but just about how to make sure that we retain life. I can't explain exactly, but both of us knew that Rina was killed, and I had a type of desire to just take that moment and sort of be a continuation of her.
Q. Was there a moment of fear? A moment that you felt that you were going to die?
A. No. I don't know – it's a type of faith that's inborn, from the family. A feeling of great trust and security, and Abba [Dad] also was very encouraging the whole time, he sat there and encouraged me, telling me to keep breathing, not to look, etc.
Q. You arrived at the hospital in serious condition. Do you remember the moment you opened your eyes there?
A. It was a half-hour before Shabbat, I couldn't yet speak too well, and after about a minute, I began to realize where I was and what had happened. I saw my friends there and my cousins, and it was very emotional; they came thinking that they probably wouldn't see me conscious the whole Shabbat.
Q. And then they came on Sunday again, singing with you... What can you tell me about your sister Rina?
A. Rina was for me the central pillar at home. She had a very special relationship with everyone in the family. On the Saturday night after the attack, I asked if they could come to the hospital, even though they were sitting shiva, and my mother and siblings and others came. There was crying of course, and Rina's absence really screamed out; every one of us truly felt her loss in his or her own way, no one more or less than another, for she was really so connected to each one. She and I had a special relationship, in that we have two older married sisters, and then me and then her - so we were the two older ones at home; we were good friends. She was just about to have a birthday two weeks later, and in fact, her friends just now organized an amazing giant event of chessed [acts of kindness] in her memory, for her birthday – with donations of blood, hair, used clothing, etc. This really characterized her; she donated hair a few times, and whenever this kind of opportunity came up she would jump at it. She was a youth group counselor, and very involved in giving, not only outside but also at home.
Q. Speaking of your home, tell me, how are you as a family continuing, your parents, the siblings? How can you get back to normalcy?
A. Firstly, thank G-d there is much life and vitality in our house, with lots of children around, and our married sisters, and our nephew; the home is continuing with life and happiness. Sometimes, though, you say to yourself, "OK, everything looks nice on the outside, but what about on the inside? Something is missing!" But here I think that this is where faith comes in – first of all in the arrival of the Messiah and the Revival of the Dead, and secondly, faith in the knowledge that Hashem sometimes takes someone who has fulfilled his or her mission, and then we are to take on that same path. Rina left us after 17 years, having experienced what she did, and she left us to now fill in for her and continue. And we have taken upon ourselves, and I truly feel it, to try to make up for the 103 years that she was missing.
Q. I want to say that you are really great, and a hero – I'm sorry to say that and embarrass you, but you'll have to tolerate it – and I truly thank you for coming.
A. I just want to add one word of thanks to the media for really covering this story very extensively, giving much exposure and encouragement to the projects that we are trying to do, such as the chessed event I mentioned, and also a telephone project that we ran; thank you very much.