ATTACK RESUMED-1

A 4-year-old Israeli boy Daniel, killed by Hamas bomb, kindergarten and synagogue hit

Four-year-old Daniel Tragerman was killed by a Hamas rocket on Friday afternoon as

he played inside his home.

  

Four-Year-Old Israeli Murdered by Hamas Laid to Rest

"May God console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."  (traditional Jewish farewell when taking leave of someone in mourning)

Daniel Tragerman, the four-year-old victim of Hamas' Fridayafternoon rocket attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz was laid to rest. Daniel was critically wounded by rocket shrapnel in his family home as he ran to the safe room when the code red siren sounded.  With only seconds to reach the room, he didn't make it.  He died shortly after. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas terrorists from the "military wing" of the Al-Qassam Brigades fired the deadly mortar shell from a site "adjacent to the Jafar Ali Ibn Taleb school in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City."  (Arutz Sheva) "Daniel was a smart, kind, sensitive child," Daniel's mother, Gila, said on Friday.  "We wanted to see him growing up with his brothers and fulfilling his potential." Hundreds attended his funeral at the Hevel Shalom cemetery in the Eshkol Regional Council in the northern Negev. “We were the happiest family in the world, and I just cannot come to grips with it,” his mother said during the service.“We are with you in deep mourning,” said Alon Shuster, head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council at Daniel's funeral.  “Here in this painful place, we are waiting for another day, a day where children can play in their yard and bomb shelters can be just another room.  So many children made it to the bomb shelter and Daniel didn’t make it; we will do all that we can so that life will go on.” The Tragerman's had only returned to their home in the south a few days before.  They had left because of the constant rocket fire from Gaza, but decided to return on the promise of security officials that residents of the south would be safe. When Hamas bombing resumed, they packed their bags and got ready to leave.  Sadly, before they could, Daniel was killed.

 

The third Hamas rocket attack against an Israeli kindergarten occurred

on Friday.

  

 Hamas Hits Israeli Kindergarten and Synagogue

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people, from this time forth and forevermore.”  (Psalm 125:2)

Hamas rockets continue to pound Israel.  Hamas began firing again on Israel on Tuesday, violating a temporary truce during the Egyptian-mediated negotiations.Since then, the news of red alert sirens and bomb blasts are filling Israel’s media, and people are once again living in their bomb shelters.  Many who live near Gaza's border, who had returned during the truce negotiations, are leaving their homes once again. What began with three Gaza rockets on Tuesday hitting Be’er Sheva and Netivot escalated to about 70 by 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. A civilian home was hit Wednesday afternoon.On Thursday morning, a 33-year old man who shielded children with his body was seriously hurt in Eshkol.  An empty kindergarten was struck and several cows were also killed when a rocket hit a cowshed.  By Thursday evening, Hamas had unleashed more than 300 rockets.

Shortly before evening prayers on Friday, a

rocket fired from the Gaza Strip made a direct

hit on a synagogue in Ashdod, causing

significant damage to the building.  Two men,

25 and 26, and a woman, 40, were injured

by shrapnel.

On Friday, four-year-old Daniel Tragerman was killed when a Hamas rocket landed near his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. As well, children in a western Negev kindergarten barely escaped injury when a salvo of rockets landed close to their packed Israeli kindergarten. Three civilians were also wounded when a rocket fired from Gaza directly hit a synagogue in the southern city of Ashdod, causing severe damage to the building.  A 54-year-old civilian in Be’er Sheva was moderately wounded and a civilian in Sderot was lightly injured by Gaza rockets on Friday as well. Rockets continued through the weekend and on Sunday, two people at the Erez Border Crossing with Israel were seriously injured by a mortar shell. The IDF closed the crossing after the attack.

On Sunday, the Erez Border Crossing with Gaza was closed after a Gaza

mortar attack seriously injured three Israeli Arabs.  Throughout Operation

Protective Edge, this crossing had remained open to transport injured

Palestinians to Israel for medical treatment.  (Photo credit: Avishai Teicher)

Because of the renewed firing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his negotiating team to leave Cairo. “If Hamas thinks that by a continuation of a drizzle of rocket fire we will make concessions, it is mistaken.  As long as quiet is not restored, Hamas will continue to take very hard blows,” Netanyahu warned. He added that the Israeli delegation at the Cairo negotiations have clear instructions to demand that any agreement will include assurances of the country’s security. “Only if there will be a clear answer to our security needs will we agree to any understandings,” he said. Netanyahu continues to convey the message to the Israeli people that there is a need for patience, that the Gaza operation is not yet completed and that more time is needed in order to achieve the goal of long-term security for the south.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a soldier injured during

Operation Protective Edge.

Hamas’ sudden return to violence has several exasperated members of the Israeli cabinet calling for a renewed ground offensive and even the recapture of the Gaza Strip. Minister Uri Ariel told Israel’s Channel 2 News that “the actions until now did not bring quiet.  It’s clear there is no choice but a ground offensive.” Israeli Communications Minister Gilad Erdan told Israel Army Radio that the resumption of rocket fire from Gaza has Israel considering retaking the territory. “Will this happen tomorrow?  It’s not certain, since the price for this will be high, but we are closer today to a ground operation than we have been at any point since the start of the operation,” Erdan said.

 

In a combined overnight mission on Thursday, IDF and Israeli security

forces targeted senior Hamas terrorists in the Gazan city of Rafah.  The

operation killed Mohammed Abu Shamlah, Raed Attar and Muhamad

Barhoum, three commanders in Hamas’ military wing.

As the fighting goes on, Hamas’ supply of rockets continues to dwindle, and Prime Minister Netanyahu is resisting pressure to carry out another ground invasion or to give in to unreasonable Hamas demands. In response to Hamas' rockets, Israel has continued with a limited air campaign that has benefited from good intelligence, making it possible to keep collateral civilian deaths to a minimum and reduce international outrage. The Israel Defense Forces called up 10,000 reservists.  They will replace the reserve forces currently serving who are being sent home for some much needed rest. The troop deployment near the Israel-Gaza border was also bolstered and placed on defensive alert. The cabinet approved the measure after the air force carried out an overnight targeted assassination in Rafah of three Hamas terrorist commanders, Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Raed Attar and Mohammed Barhoum.

 

A senior Hamas leader connected the group with the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in June, an incident that helped spark this current conflict.

According to Israel, these three Hamas commanders had been instrumental in the expansion of Hamas military capabilities, including the digging of terrorist tunnels into Israel, training fighters and smuggling weapons into Gaza. “Hamas terrorists orchestrating attacks against Israel, launching rockets indiscriminately at our civilians and abducting our soldiers will not evade our intelligence and striking capabilities,” said IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.  “This morning’s strike sends a clear message to those responsible for planning attacks:  We will strike those who have terrorized our communities, towns and cities, and we will pursue the perpetrators of abduction of our soldiers and teenagers.  We will succeed in restoring security to the State of Israel.” The Rafah attack came on Thursday, August 20, a day after Israel attempted to assassinate the top Hamas military leader, Mohammed Deif, in an air strike on a house in Gaza City. The whereabouts of Deif still remains unknown, but his wife and two children died in the strike.

 Hamas publicly executes people suspected of collaborating with Israel in

Operation Protective Edge.