Huwara terror victim's widow: 'He raised my children as his own'

Rina Stamker, partner of Silas (Shai) Nigerker who was killed on Saturday along with his son Aviad during a terror attack near Huwara, spoke to Maariv on Sunday and shared insights into her life with Nigerker. 

"Last week he celebrated his 60th birthday," she said. "And next week we were meant to celebrate 20 years together."

"I had no idea what happened," she said of the events of Saturday afternoon. "He left in the morning and said he was doing work on the car with his son and that he would come back. He sent me pictures with friends there."

'Everyone in Huwara knew him'

"At one point," she said, "I called and he didn't answer me. His ex-wife called and told me that something happened, that there was an attack. His aunt called...and began to cry. I couldn't believe it. He goes there all the time - I went with him several times. Everyone in Huwara knew him."

"He was an amazing man," Stamker told Maariv. "He raised all my children - he was like a father to them. He did everything for my children, they lacked nothing."

"I was sleeping [that] afternoon," said Gabriel Stamker, Shai's stepson and Aviad's stepbrother. "They called me at 1 p.m., suddenly I saw that there were too many [calls]. My mother called my sister and told us to go there and see what was happening. On the way there I called Silas' oldest daughter and she told me that they were shot. I drove to my mother's and told her that Silas and his son were killed in Huwara. It was an extremely difficult Shabbat - I will never forget it. He's been going there for years. He has friends there. He used to get haircuts there and fix up his car [there]."