The Diplomat
The Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court has requested the provisional archive of the investigation opened into the death of the Spaniards Iván Illarramendi and Maya Villalobo during the terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 in Israel, given the impossibility of determining which specific people were responsible.
As reported by the newspaper El Confidencial and confirmed yesterday by the Europa Press agency, the Prosecutor’s Office requested this dismissal on December 1 after receiving a police report in which it was stated that everything indicated that the two deaths occurred due to the terrorist action of Hamas.
The Central Investigative Court number 3 must determine if it follows the criteria of the Public Ministry or if it decides to continue with the investigation of the two deaths. Legal sources told Europa Press that, as it is a request for a provisional dismissal, the case could be reopened if new evidence is provided.
The Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), appearing in the case as a popular accusation, has rejected this dismissal because it understands that all information related to these events must first be requested from the Israeli judicial authorities.
In his opinion, it is “necessary to incorporate relevant information from the Israeli judicial authorities about how the events developed and their responsibility in order to be able to offer official information to the victims’ families.” Likewise, it warns that the origin of most of the data available comes from “open sources”, mainly media and public communications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two Spaniards died during the Hamas attacks. One of the victims was Maya Villalobo Sinvany, 19 years old and whose father lives in Seville, who had dual nationality and who was in Israel to perform military service, specifically at an Army post in Nahal Oz, near Gaza. The other deceased was Iván Illarramendi, born 46 years ago in Zarautz (Gipuzkoa) and who lived in the Kissufim kibbutz, near the Gaza Strip, with his wife, the Chilean Dafna Garcovich. For a time, Illarramendi and Garcovich were considered kidnapped, but it was finally confirmed that they had been murdered during the attacks.
