Israeli

Moshe Kravitsky

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Moshe KravitskyMarch 24, 2022: Moshe Kravitsky, 50, was run over by a vehicle driven by Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Kian, 34, in Beersheba, in southern Israel.

According to Israeli media, al-Kian was driving a car, and ran over Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, who was riding a bicycle.

He then allegedly drove to a gas station, where he exited the vehicle and stabbed Laura Yitzhak.

Following that stabbing, he drove to a nearby shopping center, exited the car, and stabbed Yehezkel and Yahbas. A bus driver then shot and killed al-Kian.

The four Israelis killed were buried on Wednesday, following Jewish tradition to bury the body soon after death.

They were identified as Doris Yahbas, 49, Laura Yitzhak, 43, Menach Yehezkel Menuchin, 67, and Moshe Kravitsky, 50.

Just days before this attack, Journalist Israel Harel wrote a piece in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz praising the Israeli government’s decision to further displace the Bedouin population in the Negev.

Harel wrote, “In the first stage, 20,000 apartments will be built, as well as an industrial zone for advanced technology. In addition to finding a solution to the dire housing shortage among the ultra-Orthodox community, the city, in the specific site on which it will be constructed, will assist, in this initiative’s secondary objective, to halt, even if only in part, the process through which the Negev is being taken over by the Bedouin community, a process which in recent years has taken on alarming proportions.”

The Israeli Hadash party condemned the attack and said, “the way of violence is not the way of the Arab public in general and the Negev in particular and is not part of the just struggle of the Negev Arabs against the dispossession and oppression,” the Jerusalem Post said.

“We already hear the instigators intend to use the tragedy to ignite a racist fire and lead to violence against Arab citizens. They must not be allowed to exploit the murder of innocent people to lead to more violence,” added the party.

It is worth mentioning that Abu al-Kiyan, a Bedouin man from Hura town, was previously imprisoned by Israel, and a security source told Haaretz the assailant was a known ISIS supporter.

Several Palestinian Authority officials denounced the attack in letters to Israeli counterparts.

The Israeli police and Internal Security arrested two members of Mohammad’s family under the suspicion that they “knew about the attack, but failed to stop it, however, the allegations could not be substantiated.

According to the Negev News Arab website, the Abu al-Kian family strongly denounce the attack and said Mohammad does not represent the family and its beliefs and sent its condolences to the victims and their families.

The Arabs48 news website has reported that “The High Arab Steering Committee in the Negev” also denounced the attack and said it does not represent the Arab residents of the Negev.

It added that the attack also tries to paint the Arabs in the Negev as guilty and racist, and said: “Despite the long history of racism, discrimination and incitement against us, and despite what we have recently been facing, including attacks by Israeli militias targeting our very own existence, we continue to believe in the civil struggle within the law until achieving out full and equal rights for everybody in the Negev.”

The Committee expressed its condolences to the families, wished a full recovery to the wounded, and warned of the increasing incitement by Israeli fanatics against the Bedouins in the Negev.

“We all need to act responsibly, and we warn that incitement is just going to bring more suffering against the Arabs in general, and the Bedouins in particular,” the Committee said, “There are some in Israel, especially the extreme right wing, who are using this tragedy for political gains and are inciting against us and our existence.”

Moshe was from Beersheba, in southern Israel. Source: IMEMC

Laura Yitzhak

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March 24, 2022: Laura Yitzhak, 43, was stabbed to death by Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Kian, 34, in Beersheba, in southern Israel.

According to Israeli media, al-Kian was driving a car, and ran over Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, who was riding a bicycle.

He then allegedly drove to a gas station, where he exited the vehicle and stabbed Laura Yitzhak.

Following that stabbing, he drove to a nearby shopping center, exited the car, and stabbed Yehezkel and Yahbas. A bus driver then shot and killed al-Kian.

The four Israelis killed were buried on Wednesday, following Jewish tradition to bury the body soon after death.

They were identified as Doris Yahbas, 49, Laura Yitzhak, 43, Menach Yehezkel Menuchin, 67, and Moshe Kravitsky, 50.

Just days before this attack, Journalist Israel Harel wrote a piece in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz praising the Israeli government’s decision to further displace the Bedouin population in the Negev.

Harel wrote, “In the first stage, 20,000 apartments will be built, as well as an industrial zone for advanced technology. In addition to finding a solution to the dire housing shortage among the ultra-Orthodox community, the city, in the specific site on which it will be constructed, will assist, in this initiative’s secondary objective, to halt, even if only in part, the process through which the Negev is being taken over by the Bedouin community, a process which in recent years has taken on alarming proportions.”

The Israeli Hadash party condemned the attack and said, “the way of violence is not the way of the Arab public in general and the Negev in particular and is not part of the just struggle of the Negev Arabs against the dispossession and oppression,” the Jerusalem Post said.

“We already hear the instigators intend to use the tragedy to ignite a racist fire and lead to violence against Arab citizens. They must not be allowed to exploit the murder of innocent people to lead to more violence,” added the party.

It is worth mentioning that Abu al-Kiyan, a Bedouin man from Hura town, was previously imprisoned by Israel, and a security source told Haaretz the assailant was a known ISIS supporter.

Several Palestinian Authority officials denounced the attack in letters to Israeli counterparts.

The Israeli police and Internal Security arrested two members of Mohammad’s family under the suspicion that they “knew about the attack, but failed to stop it, however, the allegations could not be substantiated.

According to the Negev News Arab website, the Abu al-Kian family strongly denounce the attack and said Mohammad does not represent the family and its beliefs and sent its condolences to the victims and their families.

The Arabs48 news website has reported that “The High Arab Steering Committee in the Negev” also denounced the attack and said it does not represent the Arab residents of the Negev.

It added that the attack also tries to paint the Arabs in the Negev as guilty and racist, and said: “Despite the long history of racism, discrimination and incitement against us, and despite what we have recently been facing, including attacks by Israeli militias targeting our very own existence, we continue to believe in the civil struggle within the law until achieving out full and equal rights for everybody in the Negev.”

The Committee expressed its condolences to the families, wished a full recovery to the wounded, and warned of the increasing incitement by Israeli fanatics against the Bedouins in the Negev.

“We all need to act responsibly, and we warn that incitement is just going to bring more suffering against the Arabs in general, and the Bedouins in particular,” the Committee said, “There are some in Israel, especially the extreme right wing, who are using this tragedy for political gains and are inciting against us and our existence.”

Laura was from Beersheba, in southern Israel. Source: IMEMC

Naomi Perlman

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naomi perlmanFebruary 6, 2022: Naomi Perlman, 90, died of wounds sustained in May 2021 from a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza. Her housemaid, Soumya Santosh, from Kerala, India, was killed by the rocket when it hit the house last May.

Perlman’s son, Shuki, said upon his mother’s death that her health had been deteriorating due to the injuries she sustained, and she had recently moved into a nursing facility. “Before she was wounded, we could talk to her, but she simply couldn’t endure this experience at such an age.”

Ashekelon Mayor Tomer Glam issued a statement noting that Naomi Perlman and her husband “had made a significant contribution toward the establishment and development of the city in its early years.”

The day that the rocket hit her home followed two straight days of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, during which time Israeli bombs killed 35 Palestinians including 12 children. Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip responded with a barrage of rockets across the border into Israel, killing five Israelis, including a teenage girl and her father. In addition, a 50-year old Israeli woman was killed in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv.

Rocket sirens sounded throughout the night in Israel’s southern towns and cities, and the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was briefly shut down. 26 Israelis were reportedly injured – most with minor injuries.

The rockets were fired in the early morning hours on Wednesday, as Gaza’s hospitals were besieged with hundreds of wounded Palestinians, many of them children, who suffered traumatic and severe injuries from the numerous Israeli missile strikes into crowded Palestinian neighborhoods throughout Gaza on Monday and Tuesday.

In addition to bombing Palestinian neighborhoods for two straight days, the Israeli military called up 5,000 reservists and had them stationed at the border with Gaza to threaten the Gaza Strip with a possible ground invasion.

The Palestinian resistance responded to this violent aggression with rocket fire directed toward Tel Aviv. This marks the longest-range rockets that have been fired by the Palestinian resistance to date. Other rockets fired in the past have reached as far as the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon (formerly the Palestinian town of Azkalan), but had not had the range or capacity to reach the Israeli capital Tel Aviv (built on the former Palestinian town of Yaffa) before.

Israelis in the cities of Sderot, Holon and Ashkelon rushed to shelters and many stayed there overnight to try to avoid the impact of Palestinian resistance rocket fire.

Israeli media reported that at 8:45 A.M. on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted a drone crossing from Gaza into Israel.

The teen girl and her father who were killed by a Palestinian resistance rocket, Nadine and Khalil Awaad, were themselves Palestinian – with Israeli citizenship. But their town, Dhamas near Lod, being a mainly Palestinian village, was never provided bomb shelters like the Jewish Israeli towns were provided by the government. In fact, their village, Dhamas, was not recognized by Israeli authorities, and so lacks basic services and is under threat of demolition by the Israeli government. One of their relatives, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.

The Israeli news agency Ha’aretz quoted Ismail Arafat as saying, “We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting [for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan]. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”

Naomi was from Ashkelon, Israel. Source: Haaretz, IMEMC

Yehuda Dimantman

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December 16, 2021: Yehuda Dimantman, 20, was killed by Palestinians who opened fire at his car, near the evacuated Homesh colonialist outpost, which was built on Palestinian lands north of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli sources said the Yehuda was with two of his friends, driving from a Yeshiva when their car came under fire near Homesh.

They stated that Yehuda was a Yeshiva student who lived in the Shavei Shomron colony and added his two friends were mildly injured.

After the shooting, the medics rushed to the scene and tried to revive Yehuda but had to pronounce his death due to his serious wounds.

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene, closed many roadblocks in the area, including Huwwara, Jeet, and Beit Forik, in addition to installing many roadblocks in the area, in an attempt to locate the shooters.

Israeli sources said the Israeli Shin Bet security agency also joined the search and investigation.

While the Hamas movement did not claim responsibility for the shooting, it praised the attack, and described it as a “heroic operation against the illegal Israeli occupation and its murderous settlers.”

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army and the security agency said they managed to pinpoint the location where the Palestinians opened fire at the car and added that they [the Palestinian shooters] stood near the road and fired nearly ten live rounds at the car while it was leaving the area and said that the efforts to capture the shooters are ongoing.

The Israeli army deployed dozens of soldiers in the area and initiated a massive search campaign.

In the evening hours of the same day, a group of Israeli colonizers attacked many Palestinian cars and closed the main road, east of Hebron city, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

It is worth mentioning that Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians, including a child, in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this month.

On December 12, 2021, the soldiers killed Jamil Mohammad al-Kayyal, 31, after the army invaded Nablus.

On December 10, 2021, the soldiers killed Jamil Abu Ayyash, 31, during the weekly protest against the illegal Israeli colonies in Beita town, southeast of Nablus.

On December 6, 2021, the soldiers killed a child, Mohammad Nidal Younis, 15, at a military roadblock near Tulkarem, in the northern part of the West Bank, after the army claimed he intentionally rammed his car into the roadblock.

On December 04, 2021, the soldiers Mohammad Shawkat Salima, 25, after he stabbed an Israeli settler in occupied Jerusalem, in the West Bank.

Yehuda was from Shavei Shomron Israeli colony, near Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Source: Ynetnews, IMEMC

Eliyahu David Kay

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November 21, 2021: Eliyahu David Kay, 26, was killed during an exchange of fire with a Palestinian who was also shot and killed by the soldiers, in Jerusalem, in the West Bank.

An Israeli source said four Israelis, including two border police officers, were injured in the incident that took place at Bab al-Silsila Gate of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem.

Israeli sources said Kay was an immigrant from South Africa, who worked at the “Western Wall Heritage Foundation,” and that he enlisted with the Israeli army in the year 2018.

He sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head and succumbed to his injuries upon arrival at an Israeli hospital.

The Israeli police said the Palestinian, identified as the slain Palestinian as Fadi Abu Shkheidem, 42, from the Shu’fat refugee camp, of occupied East Jerusalem, was armed with a “Carlo” submachine gun, opened fire at Israeli police officers before they shot him dead.

The police also said that Fadi was dressed as a haredi man before he opened fire with a submachine gun.

Eliyahu, an immigrant from South Africa, was from Modi’in colony, which was built on illegally confiscated Palestinian lands near Ramallah, in central West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Barel Hadaria Shmueli

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August 30th, 2021: Barel Hadaria Shmueli, 21, died from a critical gunshot injury that he sustained along the border wall with Gaza nine days earlier.

Barel, an Israeli Border Police officer from Be’er Ya’akov, was on duty as a sniper, shooting unarmed Palestinians, including children, who were gathered near the border wall. One of the 41 Palestinian protesters who were shot that day was a 12-year old child who was shot in the head and later died of his injury.

As he stuck his rifle through a hole in the border wall, Shmueli was shot and00 critically wounded on August 21st . First, the protesters tried to stop the shooting by grabbing at the rifle that Barel kept sticking through the hole. Some tried throwing stones at the rifle and finally, an armed Palestinian with a handgun walked up to the sniper hole in the heavily fortified wall and fired his weapon.

The Israeli media stated that the soldier sustained a life threatening gunshot wound to the head, and despite undergoing emergency surgery, he remained on a ventilator at Soroka Medical Center in critical condition, until he was pronounced dead.

The same day, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli soldiers shot and injured 41 Palestinian civilians, with live rounds and teargas canisters, including a twelve-year-old child who was shot in the head. The child, identified as Omar Hasan Abu an-Neel, 12, remained in critical condition until he succumbed to his serious wounds on August 28th.

Omar Hasan Abu an-Neel, 12, shot by Israeli Forces – Gaza

Furthermore, just days later, Israeli forces shot 14 Palestinians, while drones dropped teargas canisters at those gathered east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, 14 people were shot and wounded on August 25th, adding that 5 were shot with live rounds, suffering moderate injuries; 2 were shot with rubber-coated steel rounds; and 7 were shot with teargas canisters.

Quds Press’s correspondent said that the soldiers, stationed along the security fence stood behind earth mounds, far away from the protesters, which shows that there was no reason for the use of live rounds.

Barel was from Be’er Ya’akov in Israel. Source: IMEMC

Yigal Yehoshua

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Yigal YehoshuaMay 18, 2021: Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died of wounds sustained six days earlier, when he drove his vehicle into a group of Palestinians protesting and was pelted with stones.

One of the stones hit him on the head, and he was taken to the hospital with critical injuries. Six days later, he died from the critical head wound he had sustained. Seven Palestinians, 2 from the West Bank and 5 from Lod, were taken into custody later that month and charged with his murder.

The Palestinians had been protesting in Lod after a night of Israeli bombings of Gaza, and the shooting of Palestinian resident of Lod, Mousa Hassouna.

Hassouna had been shot to death by right-wing Israeli settlers in Lod. But just days after the murder, the Israeli police released the four suspects they had been holding in suspicion of involvement in his killing.

The wife of Yigal Yehoshua, Irena, told Israeli reporters with Channel 12 that he was “a ‘paragon of coexistence’ who worked as an electrician and repaired homes for all, Arabs and Jews”.

Lod is a city inside what is now Israel that had been known as Lydda before Israel was created and Lydda and hundreds of Palestinian villages were partly or fully depopulated by Israeli troops. The city remains about 30% Palestinian – and is touted by the Israeli government as an example of coexistence.

However, the Palestinian residents of Lod cite discrimination against them in all areas: housing, education, access to resources, and infrastructure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted after Yigal’s death that he “shares the family’s grief” and that the Israeli authorities “will find and hold accountable those who participated in this murder. No one will escape punishment.” Netanyahu has made no statement about the grief of the over 200 families in Gaza who lost loved ones due to the bombings that he authorized over the previous seven days.

Yigal was from Lod, in western Israel. Source: IMEMC

Gershon Franko

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Gershon FrankoMay 15, 2021: Gershon Franko, 50, was killed in Ramat Gan by a Palestinian rocket.

His death came in the midst of a deadly night in Gaza in which Israeli bombardment killed at least 34 Palestinians in a single night of bombing. Palestinian resistance fighters retaliated in the early morning hours with the launch of rockets toward Israel, killing Gershon.

Medic Lior Marmelstein told reporters with the Israeli outlet Yedioth Ahranoth, “We went from door to door in large numbers and in one apartment we located an unconscious man in his 50s. After trying to revive him, he was pronounced dead.”

The rocket apparently hit a residential apartment building in Ramat Gan.

According to Israeli media, the rockets fired in the early morning hours of Saturday hit points in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Rishon Lezion, Yavne, Ramat Gan, Bat Yam, Holon, Petah Tikva and Ramat HaSharon as well as in the West Bank settlement of Eli, north of Jerusalem, causing no casualties. A rocket also hit the Palestinian city of Taybeh, causing damage to property.

Despite calls by Palestinian leadership for a ceasefire, Israeli military forces have continued their escalation in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel, with the Palestinian resistance responding with indiscriminate rocket fire that has resulted in the deaths of six Israeli civilians.

In the same time period, over a hundred Palestinians have been killed, nearly a third of them children, and millions of dollars in damage has been done by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian rocket fire have been identified as:

  • Soumya Santosh, 31, from Kerala, India, killed May 12th in Ashkelon when a rocket hit the apartment where she worked as a homecare worker for an 80-year old Israeli woman. The woman she worked for was injured.
  • Nela Gurevitch was killed by a rocket that hit her apartment building in Ashkelon. Her husband was lightly wounded by the rocket.
  • Leah Yom-Tov was killed by a rocket that struck her home in Rishon Lezion.
  • ​Khalil Awad and his teenage daughter Nadeen – killed by a rocket that hit their home in the unrecognized village of Dahmash near the city of Lod. They were Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and their village, Dahmash, is ‘unrecognized’ by Israeli authorities so lacking in basic infrastructure. The town has no bomb shelters – they had requested funds from the Israeli government to build shelters, but were denied by the Central District Planning and Construction Committee.
  • Staff Sergeant Omer Tabib – killed when an anti-tank missile hit his military jeep while he was on duty  patrolling the Israel-Gaza border
  • Ido Avigal, 5, was critically wounded Wednesday night when he was struck by shrapnel from a rocket that hit near a bomb shelter where he was hiding with his family. He died of his wounds several hours later

One of the rockets fired by the Palestinian resistance on Wednesday hit an Israeli oil pipeline near Ashkelon, causing a large fire.

After Israeli forces pounded the Gaza Strip with missiles for two straight days, killing at least 35 Palestinians including 12 children, and refusing to respond to Palestinian demands for a withdrawal and a ceasefire, Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage of rockets across the border into Israel, killing five Israelis, including a teenage girl and her father.

One of those killed has been identified as Soumya Santosh, 31, from Kerala, India, who worked as a housemaid for an Israeli household in Ashkelon for the past seven years.

In addition, a 50-year old Israeli woman was killed in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv.

Rocket sirens sounded throughout the night in Israel’s southern towns and cities, and the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was briefly shut down. 26 Israelis were reportedly injured – most with minor injuries.

The rockets were fired in the early morning hours on Wednesday, as Gaza’s hospitals were besieged with hundreds of wounded Palestinians, many of them children, who suffered traumatic and severe injuries from the numerous Israeli missile strikes into crowded Palestinian neighborhoods throughout Gaza on Monday and Tuesday.

In addition to bombing Palestinian neighborhoods for two straight days, the Israeli military called up 5,000 reservists and had them stationed at the border with Gaza to threaten the Gaza Strip with a possible ground invasion.

The Palestinian resistance responded to this violent aggression with rocket fire directed toward Tel Aviv. This marks the longest-range rockets that have been fired by the Palestinian resistance to date. Other rockets fired in the past have reached as far as the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon (formerly the Palestinian town of Azkalan), but had not had the range or capacity to reach the Israeli capital Tel Aviv (built on the former Palestinian town of Yaffa) before.

Israelis in the cities of Sderot, Holon and Ashkelon rushed to shelters and many stayed there overnight to try to avoid the impact of Palestinian resistance rocket fire.

Israeli media reported that at 8:45 A.M. on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted a drone crossing from Gaza into Israel.

The teen girl and her father who were killed by a Palestinian resistance rocket, Nadine and Khalil Awaad, were themselves Palestinian – with Israeli citizenship. But their town, Dhamas near Lod, being a mainly Palestinian village, was never provided bomb shelters like the Jewish Israeli towns were provided by the government. In fact, their village, Dhamas, was not recognized by Israeli authorities, and so lacks basic services and is under threat of demolition by the Israeli government. One of their relatives, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.

The Israeli news agency Ha’aretz quoted Ismail Arafat as saying, “We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting [for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan]. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”

Gershon was from Ramat Gan, in central Israel. Source: IMEMC

Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib

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Omer TabibMay 12th, 2021: Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, 21, was killed in his military jeep while patrolling along the northern Gaza border, by an anti-tank guided missile fired by Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza.

In addition to killing Tabib, the missile injured two other soldiers and a civilian who was with them in the jeep.

Tabib was set to be released from the Israeli army next month, after serving his three year term. All Israelis are required to serve three years in the military when they turn 18. Most of the soldiers spend their service as part of the military occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

The Palestinian Territories: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, have been under Israeli martial law since 1967. All aspects of the lives of Palestinians living in these Territories are subject to the jurisdiction of the Israeli military.

On Thursday morning, hundreds of mourners attended Tabib’s funeral in the military cemetery in his hometown of Elyakim.

He is the sixth Israeli to be killed by the Palestinian resistance during the current escalation that began Monday May 10th. During the same time period, 69 Palestinians have been killed, 17 of them children, including toddlers and babies as young as 4 months old. Over 400 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli forces, many of them seriously.

Omer was from Elyakim, Israel. Source: IMEMC

Soumya Santosh*

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May 12th, 2021: Soumya Santosh*, 31, was killed by a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza.

After Israeli forces pounded the Gaza Strip with missiles for two straight days, killing at least 35 Palestinians including 12 children, and refusing to respond to Palestinian demands for a withdrawal and a ceasefire, Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage of rockets across the border into Israel, killing five Israelis, including a teenage girl and her father.

One of those killed has been identified as Soumya Santosh, from Kerala, India, who worked as a housemaid for an Israeli household in Ashkelon for the past seven years.

In addition, a 50-year old Israeli woman was killed in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv.

Rocket sirens sounded throughout the night in Israel’s southern towns and cities, and the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was briefly shut down. 26 Israelis were reportedly injured – most with minor injuries.

The rockets were fired in the early morning hours on Wednesday, as Gaza’s hospitals were besieged with hundreds of wounded Palestinians, many of them children, who suffered traumatic and severe injuries from the numerous Israeli missile strikes into crowded Palestinian neighborhoods throughout Gaza on Monday and Tuesday.

In addition to bombing Palestinian neighborhoods for two straight days, the Israeli military called up 5,000 reservists and had them stationed at the border with Gaza to threaten the Gaza Strip with a possible ground invasion.

The Palestinian resistance responded to this violent aggression with rocket fire directed toward Tel Aviv. This marks the longest-range rockets that have been fired by the Palestinian resistance to date. Other rockets fired in the past have reached as far as the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon (formerly the Palestinian town of Azkalan), but had not had the range or capacity to reach the Israeli capital Tel Aviv (built on the former Palestinian town of Yaffa) before.

Israelis in the cities of Sderot, Holon and Ashkelon rushed to shelters and many stayed there overnight to try to avoid the impact of Palestinian resistance rocket fire.

Israeli media reported that at 8:45 A.M. on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted a drone crossing from Gaza into Israel.

The teen girl and her father who were killed by a Palestinian resistance rocket, Nadine and Khalil Awaad, were themselves Palestinian – with Israeli citizenship. But their town, Dhamas near Lod, being a mainly Palestinian village, was never provided bomb shelters like the Jewish Israeli towns were provided by the government. In fact, their village, Dhamas, was not recognized by Israeli authorities, and so lacks basic services and is under threat of demolition by the Israeli government. One of their relatives, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.

The Israeli news agency Ha’aretz quoted Ismail Arafat as saying, “We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting [for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan]. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”

Soumya was from the Idukki district of Kerala, India, but had been living and working in Ashkelon, Israel when she was killed. Source: IMEMC