Your worst nightmare

"Dad's dead, I'm not joking – They shot him": 10-year-old boy's haunting call from terror scene

Ten-year-old Neve used his murdered father's phone to deliver the devastating news to his stepmother, his childhood innocence forever marked by the composed words "Dad's dead, I'm not joking with you, they shot him." For Tal Winkelstein, those moments between her stepson's call and the crushing realization that her husband Elad would never call to say it was all a mistake became the dividing line between the life she knew and the "black club" of terror victims' families she had desperately hoped to avoid.

Gila Isaacson | JFeed | 10:21 | 2 min read |

Elad Winkelstein HY'D (Photo: )

In a heart-wrenching interview, Tal Winkelstein recounts the chilling moment her 10-year-old stepson Neve called from her husband's phone to inform her of his father's murder in Monday's terror attack in Al-Fundaq, Samaria.

"I was home in Ein HaNatziv when I got a call from Elad's number," Tal tells ynet. "Neve was on the line, saying with shocking composure, 'Dad's dead, Dad's dead. I'm not joking with you, they shot him.'"

The couple had been married for three years, sharing a 21-month-old son, Omer. Neve, Elad's eldest son from a previous relationship, is 10 years old. Tal describes how she initially clung to hope that Neve had misunderstood, waiting desperately for a call from Elad saying everything was fine.

"My hands went numb and I sat down on the couch," she recalls. "I called the police, realizing this was happening in real time and I would be the one reporting it." She later learned that a Jewish bystander had taken Neve to safety while security forces rushed to the scene.

The couple had previously lived in Kedumim for two years, where Elad served as the settlement's security coordinator. "I hated Al-Fundaq and the whole reality of that area because of the danger," Tal shares. "I felt attacks were happening with increasing frequency, and it wasn't a question of if but when, so I wanted to flee from there. We chose a quiet, green area instead."

"I was always afraid for Omer and myself, but was sure nothing bad would happen to Elad. He wasn't afraid of anything - small and lean, but athletic, physically and mentally strong, confident."

The attack occurred when terrorists opened fire from a passing vehicle at a bus and car on Route 55 in Al-Fundaq village, between Karnei Shomron and Kedumim. Two other victims, Rachel Cohen (73) and Aliza Reiss (70) from Kedumim, were also killed. Large military forces launched a manhunt for the terrorists' vehicle and imposed closures on Nablus and surrounding villages.

"I thought that because Elad was a police officer, I'd be spared the anxiety that reservists' wives feel - spared from the statistics of getting that knock on the door," Tal concludes bitterly. "I've joined the black club. It's sad and surreal that exactly the disaster I feared for years happened, and exactly in the place I feared it would."

Israel National News contributed to this article.