Boy Injured By Rocket Attack In Sderot

Jerusalem – Panic again struck the southern Israeli town of Sderot yesterday, as 10 sirens during the day sent thousands of people running for shelters.

Yossi Haimov, a 10-year-old boy, suffered serious injuries to his arm yesterday when a missile fired by Palestinians, who were deployed on the ruins of a destroyed Israeli village in north Gaza, landed near the boy’s school in Sderot.

Doctors and paramedics who were dispatched to the scene managed to stop the bleeding and evacuate the boy to a hospital in Ashkelon, while at least a dozen other Sderot residents were treated for shock.

The parents of the 10-year-old from Sderot received good news yesterday afternoon, after the hospital’s deputy director-general, Dr. Ron Lobel, informed them that the doctors had managed to save their son’s arm, which was badly injured in the rocket attack.

Dr. Lobel updated the parents that the injury to Yossi’s arm was very bad and caused damage to the tissues and nerves in the area.

“The surgery is not over, but as it seems at the moment, his arm was not damaged and he will be able to continue using it. He is still in the operation room,” he said.

Haimov returned from school yesterday afternoon together with his 8-year-old sister, Maria. Maria later said that after returning from school, she and her brother left their bags in the house and went to visit a friend and later went out to the backyard.

“We heard the Color Red siren system, quickly ran and hid, there was a small ‘boom’, and then when we came out there was once again a strong explosion. We hid near the wall and then the shrapnel hit Yossi in the shoulder and his entire shoulder was filled with blood,” she said.

“Yossi didn’t cry, but he said ‘it hurts.’ We both quickly ran to a grocery store, screaming. The grocery store owner quickly called for an ambulance and they took Yossi to the hospital,” Maria said.

Someone called the children’s mother, who rushed to the place from her office.

The sister continued to describe the moments of horror: “Yossi didn’t cry, he only kept telling me that it hurts. I don’t remember much from the injury. All I remember is that there was a lot of smoke, and when I saw Yossi’s shoulder with blood, I could see that his entire shoulder was broken.”

The children’s father, Tashkent Haimov, said that he was informed of his son’s injury while at work.

“I understood from the neighbors that he managed to hide behind a wall, and only his arm stuck out a little and was hurt. We were really lucky that he did not sustain more serious injuries.

“This is not the first time rockets land near our house, and our house was damaged several times. We have been living in Sderot for many years. I work in this city, my family lives here, and with every day that passes, I don’t know how it will end and what will happen tomorrow. This is a situation we can’t continue living with,” Mr. Haimov concluded.

Meanwhile, 6,500 police officers and border police troops deployed along the fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, as well as around Gaza vicinity communities, in order to help IDF forces repel any demonstrators who might attempt to cross the border. However, only a few hundred Gazans showed up.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008