Thousands Attend Funeral of Arab-Israeli Killed in Istanbul

Thousands of people attended the funeral on Tuesday of an 18-year-old Arab-Israeli woman who was killed in the Istanbul club attack.

Layan Nasser was celebrating New Year’s with three friends on a trip to Istanbul when she was killed.

Mourners wept as they marched through the streets of the city of Tira behind a wooden coffin. One woman carried a sign with a picture of Nasser and the image of a rose.

Tira Mayor Mamoun Abd El Hai said the city declared a day of mourning in memory of Nasser, with banks and municipal offices closed.

“She had dreams to work, to progress, to study, to raise a family, but unfortunately the terror put an end to her dreams and ended her life,” Abd El Hai told The Associated Press.

The friends who traveled with Nasser mourned her loss.

“The biggest blow is that we lost my best friend,” one of them, Alaa Abd El Hai, told Israeli Channel 2. Another Israeli traveling with Nasser was wounded in the attack. Abd El Hai said Nasser worked with her as a dental assistant.

Nasser’s father, Zaher Nasser, told Israeli Channel 10 TV that he’d had a bad feeling about his daughter’s trip to Istanbul.

“I was very concerned about this trip. I asked her not to travel in light of the bad security situation there, but she insisted to go with her friends,” he said.