Tel Aviv Bombings Devastate Chinese Family at Home

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 09, 2003

Tel Aviv Bombings Devastate Chinese Family at Home

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Zhang Chuquan, a 74-year-old resident of the coastal city Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang Province, was having a noon nap on January 6 when he heard the news on television that Palestinian suicide bombings had struck Tel Aviv in Israel on Sunday, killing 20 and wounding 100.

He could not go back to sleep because his daughter Zhang Minmin was working in Tel Aviv.

Zhang, together with another six Chinese, were injured by the January 5 bombings in Tel Aviv. Li Peizhong from East China's Shandong Province and Guo Aiping from East China's Fujian Province both died in the attacks.

Although official news said yesterday that Zhang was now out of danger, the incident has still greatly worried her family and friends in Zhoushan.

"What good luck in a stretch of bad!" said the 74-year-old, after hearing his daughter was still alive.

"I almost collapsed when I heard the news on TV, which claimed at first that my daughter had died. Then, I was informed that it was a mistake. She was still alive but seriously injured. Although I felt relieved, tears just ran down my cheeks," said Zhang. He now just hopes his daughter recovers as soon as possible.

Wo Wenhu, Zhang's husband, is now preparing to go to Israel to look after his injured wife, in spite of the dangerous situation there.

Wo said that he received a call from one of Zhang's best friends in Israel on Monday night, saying she was hit in the chest and had an operation at a local hospital on the 10-centimetre-long wound.

According to Wo, Zhang went to Israel in September 1999.

Every time they talked by phone, Wo and other family members would tell Zhang to be careful and try to avoid going to public places.

"But she always said that Tel Aviv was far away from the conflict and told us to take it easy. We didn't expect that even Tel Aviv was not safe," said Wo.

Wo said Zhang worked as a cook in the city of Zhoushan before 1999. To make more money to send her son to college, she decided to make a living abroad.

With the help of her cooking skills, Zhang was soon settled in a restaurant in Tel Aviv, earning 8,000 yuan (US$964) a month.

"She always sent money back home. But in order to save more for the family, she did not return home," said a tearful Shen Meifeng, Zhang's mother.

Wo said: "Originally, she agreed to come home this coming summer, but now..."

"I will bring her home for Spring Festival this time," he continued.

Wo did not know yet whether their son who is studying in a college in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, had heard news of the attack. But he said he would prefer their son not know of his mother's injuries.

Sources from the local public security bureau said that Zhoushan workers abroad are mainly concentrated in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Those in Israel accounted for only a dozen or so.

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