ANT KATZ

The attack Saturday on a pedestrian boulevard in the city centre killed Israelis Yonathan Suhr, a man in his 40s, Simha Dimri, 60 (pictured), and Avraham Goldman, 70, CNN Turk reported based on news from local officials.

The Iranian victim was identified as Ali Reza Razmhah.

Simha Dimri who was one of the three Israelis killed, and her husband Avi, who was ‘moderately wounded’ – pic: Facebook

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency meeting on Sunday after which he said officials were investigating if Israelis had been targeted in the bombing, and said intelligence pointed to it being an Islamic State (ISIS) attack.

The Israeli victims were part of a 14-member group on a culinary tour of Turkey, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

According to Jewish news service Ynet several Israelis were among those wounded in the attack, including two who were in critical condition, two in moderate condition and six lightly wounded. On Saturday evening the MFA was attempting to get in touch with another six Israelis thought to have been at the site of the attack and of whom there had been no news.

Simha Dimri had three sons, a daughter and several grandchildren; her husband, Avi Dimri, was moderately wounded in the attack, Maariv reported. Dimona Mayor Benny Biton said the Dimris are a well-known family with a long history in the city.

On Sunday morning, MDA doctors and paramedics returned from Turkey with and some of the wounded on board two planes. The wounded suffered light-to-moderate injuries. After landing back in Israel, Magen David Adom medical teams evacuated them from Ben-Gurion Airport to the Sheba, Tel Hashomer and Ichilov medical centres.

LEFT:

The coffins of three Israelis killed in the Istanbul suicide bombing are loaded onto an IAF transport plane together with the critically injured  (Pic: MFA)

Later in the day, MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said members of his delegation in Turkey had prepared five more seriously wounded Israeli tourists, in three Turkish hospitals, for flights back to Israel. The tourists were taken in Turkish Red Crescent ambulances, which drove them to the airport in Istanbul. Every wounded tourist had a team of MDA doctors and paramedics accompanying them.

Another Israel Air Force plane that contained medical teams and Home Front Command officials picked up the wounded and flew them to Israel. Three coffins carrying the casualties, draped with Israeli flags, were also loaded onto the aircraft.

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Five intensive care MDA ambulances

The plane landed at Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday afternoon, and five intensive care MDA ambulances picked up the wounded at Terminal 1. The Soroka, Tel Hashomer, Assaf Harofe, and Beilinson Medical centers received the five wounded.

The bodies of the casualties were taken to Dimona, Holon, and the Kaplan Medical Centre in Rehovot.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) said that it is providing provide each family that was afflicted by the attack US$1,000.  “The goal of this assistance is to provide families whose loved ones were killed or wounded in the attacks with an immediate grant to help them cover the expense of missed work days, transportation to and from the hospital, hotel bills, and the like,” said an IFCJ spokesman.