Bodies of six victims of Mumbai attacks returned to Israel

Dec 2, 2008, 5:05 GMT

Tel Aviv - The bodies of six Jews killed in Mumbai's terrorist attacks were returned to Israel Tuesday for burial.

An Israel Air Force plane carrying the bodies, as well as a surviving toddler, landed at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv late Monday.

A short ceremony including a Jewish prayer for the dead was held at the airport, before the bodies were transported to Israel's Abu Kabir pathological centre for final identification.

Four of the coffins were wrapped in Israeli flags and two in Jewish prayer shawls, as four of the victims had Israeli citizenship while the remaining two did not. They include a Mexican Jew whose family lives in Israel and who had planned to immigrate to the country as well.

Hundreds were expected to attend a funeral service scheduled for the afternoon at Chabad Village, east of Tel Aviv, for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, an American Israeli, and his Israeli wife Rivka.

The couple, both in their late 20s, were the directors of the Jewish centre of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad movement attacked in Mumbai.

Their 2-year-old son, Moishe, who was rescued from the house by his Indian nanny, also landed in Israel Tuesday accompanied by his Israeli grandparents.