The State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman, told the participants in the Annual Conference of the Internal Audit Regulatory Unit at the Ministry of Justice about his meeting with the parents of the late Yona (Ionas) Karussis, who was murdered in the terror attack on the Light Rail in Jaffa
The State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman, participated in the Annual Conference of the Internal Audit Regulatory Unit at the Ministry of Justice (24.12.2025).
In his speech at the conference, Comptroller and Ombudsman Englman noted that one of the foundation stones of the state audit is risk-based audit, also from the viewpoint of the developing security situation. He demonstrated this via a survey of the report he published this week on the subject of the effectiveness of the seam line barrier and the crossings in the Jerusalem envelope area: "The report concerned an area that was not at the heart of the October 7th terror attack, mainly in order to examine whether we are learning lessons regarding another area. The cost of establishing the barrier in the entire Judea and Samaria area, including the barrier in the Jerusalem envelope, is NIS 8.3 billion. When did the political echelon and the defense bodies last examine the effectiveness of the project? Has the IDF examined the physical location where the female lookout soldiers sit? How is the intelligence gathering protected?"
According to him, the report published this week joins an additional recently published report concerning the terror attack on the Light Rail in Gush Dan. "Last night I met with the parents of the late Yonah Karussis who was murdered in this terror attack", he related.
The State Comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, Roni Plitt and the parents of the late Yona Karussis, who was murdered in the terror attack on the Light Rail in Jaffa
The late Yona Karussis was the only son of Professor Dimitrios Karussis, a neurosurgeon and Director of the Unit for Neuro-Immunology, Multiple Sclerosis & Cell Therapy at Hadassah Medical Center, and of Dr. Ournia Verka Karussis, a pediatrician specializing in bone marrow transplants and leukemia treatment. Both immigrated to Jerusalem from Greece in 1988.
Yona (named after the Biblical prophet), a native of Israel, was a graduate of the Leyada School in Jerusalem, and about to complete his architectural studies and start working at an architecture firm. His fiancée was due to arrive in Israel to study for a doctorate in Jerusalem. But on October 1st, 2024, two terrorists identifying with Hamas murdered seven people on the Light Rail in Jaffa. Yona was one of the murder victims.
His friends, among them Idan Plitt, the son of an employee of the office, Adv. Roni Plitt, identified Yona among the victims from the video clips published on the news and tried to locate him but regrettably at midnight his murder in the terror attack was announced. Yona was buried at the cemetery of the Greek Patriarchate in the Old City of Jerusalem on October 5th, 2024, in the presence of the few family members who had managed to arrive in Israel due to the war, and friends. Yona was 25 years old when he died.
"We must not wait for a serious incident to test our readiness for terrorism", said the State Comptroller and Ombudsman. "We must remember that rectification of the defects and a review of the implementation of the recommendations in the audit reports are essential for saving human lives".
