Israeli Homes, Bus Hit by Gaza Terror Rocket Onslaught

Israeli security forces and firefighters gather near abuilding set ablaze after it was hit
JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty
Deborah Brand

TEL AVIV – Israel’s south was pounded with a barrage of more than 200 rockets launched from the Hamas-ruling Gaza Strip Monday afternoon, injuring one man seriously and another two moderately. 

A bus was hit by rocket fire, moderately wounding the driver, who was the only person on board at the time. A man standing near the bus was critically injured and evacuated to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center.

A third man was reportedly hit by shrapnel and sustained moderate injuries.

Another rocket hit a home in the border town of Sderot, but no injuries were reported.

The IDF reported several Israeli homes were hit:

Israel’s air force conducted a series of strikes against targets in the coastal enclave, the IDF said.

Intense clashes broke out between Israeli forces and fighters in the Gaza Strip Sunday night, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a trip to Paris and return to Israel. Rockets were fired into Israel from the coastal enclave, in apparent retribution for the killing of a senior Hamas commander and six other Palestinian terrorists.

One of the commandos, an Israeli soldier identified only as M, was killed during the operation.

Thousands attended the soldier’s funeral Monday, including President Reuven Rivlin, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Communications Minister Ayoub Kara.

Rivlin was visibly moved, with tears in his eyes as he eulogized the 41-year-old soldier, who left behind a wife and two children.

“I came to thank and to salute a hero on behalf of the entire State of Israel. The very best of our boys, whose memory will be forever engraved on our hearts,” Rivlin said.

“Your pain is our pain, your grief is our grief. The grief of the whole people, the whole people of Israel. M was one of the bravest and most daring soldiers and commanders of the State of Israel and he fell defending the citizens of Israel, the children of Israel. He lived the values he was brought up on: bravery, self-sacrifice, daring and determination, and that is how he died,” he added.

The president then hugged M’s children and said, “Your dad was a hero, the greatest hero.”

Bennett said the slain lieutenant colonel should be written in history books “as one of the greatest Israeli heroes, alongside Yoni Netanyahu and Roi Klein,” in reference to the prime minister’s brother who was killed in the 1976 hostage rescue operation in Entebbe, and Klein, a soldier who saved his troops by jumping on a grenade in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

The soldier “did not hesitate to take part in this complex mission and was not afraid to endanger his life,” Bennett added.

 

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