The Spanish Government has posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Civil Recognition for Victims of Terrorism to Maya Villalobo Sinvany and Iván Illarramendi Saizar, the two Spaniards killed during the Hamas terrorist attack at the Israeli base of Nahal Oz on 7 October last year.
The Official State Gazette (BOE) published the royal decrees issued by the Ministry of the Interior granting them this honour.
Approximately 1,200 people lost their lives in the attack, including Spaniards Maya Villalobo, aged 19, and Iván Illarramendi, aged 46.
Villalobo held dual Spanish-Israeli nationality and was at the Nahal Oz base completing her military service, while Illarramendi was killed in a kibbutz alongside his wife, Loren Garcovich, aged 47, who was of Chilean nationality.
The BOE also published on Thursday the royal decrees signed by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, awarding the Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III to the two most recent Secretaries General of the Royal Household, Lieutenant General Domingo Martínez Palomo and diplomat Alfonso Sanz Portalés.
Both served the Royal Household as Secretary General and Diplomatic Advisor, respectively, until 30 November, positions now filled by legal counsel Mercedes Araújo and career diplomat Carmen Castiella.
On the recommendation of the Ministry of Education, the Government has also awarded the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise to Italian philologist and Hispanist Gabriele Morelli, as well as Aragonese historian of literature and literary critic José Carlos Mainer Baqué.
