Tel Aviv Shooting Victim Identified as New Mom Who Died Shielding Infant

A new mother was among the victims of a suspected terror attack outside Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, which came just as Iran began launching a volley of ballistic missiles at Israel in response to Israeli actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Inbar Segev-Vigder, 33, died shielding her nine-month-old baby boy, Ari, who was strapped to her chest when she was shot at a light rail station in Jaffa, according to reports in Israeli media. The boy is said to be safe.

Israel’s official social media channels identified Segev-Vigder one of the seven victims in the shooting.

The shooting was carried out by two men, whom Israel identified as Muhammad Chalaf Sahar Rajab and Hassan Muhammad Hassan Tamimi, according to the Jerusalem Post. The men exited the rail station and opened fire on Jerusalem Street in the city. One was armed with a rifled. The other had a knife.

The attackers fled on foot and were fatally shot by security forces and civilians using their personal pistols, according to officials. The two men were identified as Palestinian residents from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Police said Rajab and Tamimi had no prior arrests, according to the Associated Press.

In addition to the seven killed, at least eight others, including a child, were wounded in the shooting, according to Israeli police. The injured were evacuated to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon as well as Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv. At least two were in critical condition with head wounds.

Segev-Vigder’s baby was unharmed and taken to a hospital by a Good Samaritan after his mother was killed.

“[Segev-Vigder] went to get off the train and was shot,” a female rail passenger told Ynet. “We heard the baby screaming. We pulled him out of the carrier. One of the policemen took me and the baby in a van to Wolfson [Hospital].”

The World Jewish Congress posted to X calling Segev-Vigder “a hero who saved her child, and we will remember her as such.”

Segev-Vigder lived in Tel Aviv, according to the Jerusalem Post, where she owned a fitness and Pilates studio. Her husband, Yaari Vigder, is a soldier in the Israeli reserves. He is currently fighting in Gaza, according to KAN.

Vigder told KAN he rode his bicycle to the scene after receiving no answer from his wife. He could not find her.

“After a thorough search, I found our dog shot while passers-by were taking care of her,” he told the outlet.

“I looked for Inbar in the whole neighborhood and realized that I had to go to the hospital because I didn’t get a response from anywhere.”

Vigder found his son with a doctor as they were hunkering down in protected area of the hospital due to the Iranian missile attack.

“Ari was in a carrier that covered Inbar’s entire upper body during the attack, he was not injured at all,” Vigder said. “For the rest of his life – may he feel the same love he received from Inbar.”

Four other victims of the shooting were identified as Georgian citizen Ilya Nozadze, 42; student Revital Bronstein, 24; Moldovan immigrant Nadia Sokolenko, 40; and international dancer Sahar Goldman, 30. Two other people have not been named yet.

The shooting appeared to be a coordinated terror attack timed to coincide with the latest escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Iranian proxy forces of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. The missiles went over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but did not appear to do any significant damage. Several people were injured by rocket fragments falling over Jericho, and at least one man was killed in Gaza by falling rocket fuselage.

The attack was later confirmed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which said “dozens of ballistic missiles targeting important military and security targets” were launched in “self-defense” over the killing of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July and in response to “the intensification of the regime’s evils with the support of the United States” over attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.