JERUSALEM—Four-year-old Daniel Tragerman, the victim of a terrorist mortar attack that struck Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Gaza border on Friday, was laid to rest Sunday morning at Hevel Shalom cemetery near his home.
Daniel’s mother, Gila, tearfully eulogized her son, saying, “I do not understand what’s going on at all, sweetie. I cannot believe I’m here to say goodbye.”
“We were the happiest family in the world, and I do not accept this,” she continued. “My Daniel, we want to thank you for teaching us to love, to smile, and for giving us many moments of joy in such a short time. You’re smart, sensitive, beautiful.”
“I find comfort in that you were a child who was loved and who was happy until his last moments,” she recalled. “We wanted to protect you, but even the Code Red siren did not protect us.”
Daniel was killed by flying shrapnel from a rocket that landed near his home. The siren gave the family a mere three seconds to make it to safety, residents noted, but Daniel did not make it in time. Paramedics from Magen David Adom attempted to resuscitate Daniel at the scene, but were unsuccessful and pronounced the 4-year-old dead.
“The suitcases were already packed,” his mother recalled. “A minute before the explosion, I went out to take Uri’s baby carrier (her younger son) from the clothesline and met the neighbor. I asked him if they were leaving and told him we were setting off now. I went inside, and there was the Color Red siren.”
“The children were playing in a tent inside the house and from the moment of the siren to the explosion, only three seconds passed. We didn’t have time to get the children and go into the protected room.”
Gila explained that her son was extremely disciplined when it came to the rocket sirens.
“He always rushed to the protected room. The moment the alarm sounded, he knew what to do and where to go,” she said. “When everyone reached the protected room, Daniel would say, ‘Now, we’re all safe.’ ”
Surrounded by hundreds of mourners, Gila beseeched G‑d to give her and her family the strength to live on. “G‑d in heaven, strengthen us, give us the strength to continue,” she cried out.
As word of Daniel’s tragic death spread thorough Israel just before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath, there were calls for prayers on behalf of his soul and for protection for everyone in the Holy Land. Rocket barrages continued to rain down on Israel throughout Shabbat; in addition, four rockets fired from Syria fell into the Golan Heights on Sunday.
The ongoing rocket fire has injured a number of Israelis, some severely. Netanel Maman, 22, a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces, remains in critical condition at Bellinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah. Maman was on leave from the IDF’s Ordnance Corps after having served in combat in the Gaza Strip. Boaz Tadmor, the hospital’s assistant director, said Maman’s life is “still in danger.”
Also shortly before the Shabbat, a rocket struck a synagogue in Ashdod, lightly wounding three people and causing extensive damage to the inside of the building.
List of Wounded and Other Ways to Help
Representatives of the Chabad Terror Victims Project, which along with Chabad emissaries from throughout Israel and the world, continue to visit the wounded, comfort mourners, and provide encouragement and strength to all in the Israel. At the end of last week, the CTVP released an updated ad that was placed in Israeli newspapers and distributed to online media, providing the names of the injured, along with their mothers’ names, calling for prayers for their complete recovery.
For those wishing to help in the effort from abroad, Chabad.org has set up a special web page where people can dedicate a mitzvah and write a note to IDF soldiers in general.
Mitzvahs and notes can be specifically directed to the wounded, and printouts will be hand-delivered by staff and volunteers of the Chabad Terror Victims Project.
For more news, impressions, mitzvahs and prayers related to “Operation Protective Edge,” click here.
Readers can click on the image below for a larger version of the list of those hospitalized.
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