JERUSALEM—As unrestrained riots continued in cities across Israel on Wednesday night and Thursday, barrages of deadly rocket fire rained down on the Holy Land, with missiles falling for the first time as far north as the Jezreel Valley. The toll of Wednesday’s onslaught included a 5-year-old boy, who was fatally injured when a rocket hit his home in Sderot, and an Israel Defense Forces soldier whose vehicle was hit by an anti-tank rocket near the Gaza border.
Frustration and anger grew around the country as police and other security forces at times failed to gain control of burning, looting and attacks. In the early hours on Thursday morning, rioting Arab residents of Haifa set fire to vehicles in the parking lot of a building inhabited by Jewish families while they slept. About 60 people were treated for smoke inhalation, many of them children.
In the middle of the country, Gil Gabai, whose husband was stabbed in Lod on Thursday morning, told Army Radio that as her husband was heading off to work in the morning, “a group of Arabs shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and attacked him with stones and rocks. One pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back. He managed to fend him off and escape, but another Arab man still tried to grab him.
“I saw the whole thing from the window of the house,” continued Gabai. “I screamed for them to leave, but I was afraid to come down in case something happened to me,” she said. “My husband is currently in the hospital. He is stable and doing OK.”
During the same early-morning hours, families at the southern end of Israel’s Mediterranean coast rushed their children to bomb shelters as sirens sounded in Sderot and other communities located near the Gaza border and rockets began to fall. Soon after, a residential building in Petach Tikvah was directly hit by a rocket. In another incident, shrapnel from a rocket hit a house in Rishon Letzion.
Mourning Lives Lost
The nation mourned the loss of 5-year-old Ido Avigal, who was critically injured Wednesday when a rocket hit his home in Sderot, then succumbed to his injuries at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. Shani Avigal, the boy’s mother, was seriously injured in the incident and remains hospitalized. Ido’s 7-year-old sister, Tahel, was lightly injured, and his cousin, 6x-year-old Noam Abergil, was also seriously injured.
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, 21, in his hometown of Elyakim, in Israel’s north. Tabib was killed, and two other soldiers and one civilian wounded, when Hamas operatives fired an anti-tank guided missile at their jeep just north of the Gaza border.
Rabbi Danny Cohen, co-director of Chabad of Hebron with his wife, Batsheva, wrote that “Omer served in Hebron a bit over a year ago, and was a close and dear friend. He will always be remembered for his smile and charm. May Hashem watch over our troops and the people of Israel. Amen.”
Striking Back at Terror
The IDF continued retaliatory attacks against the terrorists and their infrastructure in Gaza. In addition, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman said that plans are being developed for a ground offensive, which will be given to the security cabinet for approval.
On Thursday morning, the IDF struck at least four terrorist cells that were preparing to launch anti-tank guided missiles. “The organization is losing everything,” Zilberman told reporters.
“Tonight we started destroying government targets in the Gaza Strip, such as central banks and internal security buildings. Hamas is beginning to discover cracks and there is pressure in the organization, especially among the Gaza public, which is losing its patience,” he said.
More than 650 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets have been struck since the beginning of the round of conflict, such as those belonging to their police, interior ministry, banks, homes of commanders (including that of the battalion commander of Khan Younis), a naval commando unit and numerous terrorist tunnels.
Rabbis and Official Condemn Jewish Violence
In some hot spots, like Bat Yam, groups of Jewish youth have engaged in unprovoked attacks against Arabs, drawing immediate condemnation from Jewish religious leaders and Israeli politicians.
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef implored Jews not to turn violent against Arab citizens. “Innocent Israeli civilians are attacked by terror organizations, the blood runs hot and our hearts are outraged, the scenes are difficult to watch. But we mustn’t be dragged to provocations and to hurting people or harming property,” he wrote.
Rabbi Yosef added that the Torah does not permit one to take the law into one’s own hands. “The work of restoring order must be left to police,” he said. “We must be a light unto the nations, and not, G‑d forbid, the opposite.”
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