Body of Israeli Teen Killed in Istanbul Terror Attack Coming Home

Image by Getty Images

By Marcy Oster January 2, 2017

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Interior Ministry arranged the return of the body of an Israeli-Arab teen killed in a terrorist attack in an Istanbul nightclub.

Lian Zaher Nasser, 19, from the Arab city of Tira, was one of 39 killed in the attack, which occurred at around 1 a.m. Saturday at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul’s Ortakoy neighborhood.

Nasser’s family asked the Tira municipality for help in repatriating the body, since there was no travel insurance to help with the expense. The municipality turned to the government, which made the arrangements.

The ZAKA Israeli search-and-rescue organization, which has worked around the world, coordinated the repatriation including logistics, transportation and financial, The Times of Israel reported.

The body was expected to arrive in Israel on Monday morning.

Because the attack at the Istanbul club did not target Israeli citizens, the Defense Ministry is not expected not to recognize Nasser or her friend who was injured in the attack as terror victims, Ynet reported. Two other Israeli women also from Tira were at the nightclub during the attack.

The Islamic State terror group on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement written in Arabic and Turkish. It warned of other attacks on Turkey to come. The attacker is still on the loose.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO