An Israeli man has been killed after a rocket that was fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists struck his home in central Israel.
The man, who has not been named at the time of writing, was killed when his apartment in Rehovot, a central Israeli town, was hit by a rocket. The home had a bomb shelter but the man was not inside it when the rocket landed. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the explosion.
Home Front Command chief Rafi Milo, visiting the scene afterward, said the room was being used for storage. “This shows how important it is to follow the instructions of the Home Front Command,” he said.
It is unclear whether the victim was unable to make it to a shelter in time or if he chose not to go to the shelter. Either way, the fault of his death lies squarely in the hands of the terrorists who fired the rocket at civilians.
More than 800 rockets have been fired into Israeli civilian populations as of Thursday evening. There have thankfully been a relatively low number of causalities on the Israeli side thanks to the investment Israel has made in keeping their citizens safe.
The Israeli government has over many years invested in bomb shelters, enabling millions of Israelis to have a safe place to go whenever a rocket attack takes place. Likewise, Israel has invested in an early warning system that alerts residents with sirens and phone alerts when a rocket is fired towards their area. Additionally, Israel has the impressive Iron Dome anti-rocket system which shoots Palestinian rockets out of the air.
Even though Israel takes every precaution to protect its citizens, clearly it cannot stop every rocket from reaching them.
It is important to note how Palestinian terrorists are doing the opposite in this regard. Instead of investing in bomb shelters to protect their citizens, the terrorists instead use concrete to build tunnels underneath homes, schools and businesses in Gaza. They use the civilians above them as human shields to protect their terror activities. Palestinian terrorists also fire their rockets largely from within densely populated civilian areas.
Additionally, Palestinian terror rockets are not very accurate. Around 1 in 5 rockets launched towards Israel from Gaza never reach Israel. They instead fall inside the Gaza Strip and damage homes within Gaza. One rocket that was fired towards Israel by the terrorists ended up killing four Palestinians, including children.
Despite the evidence showing that the terror rockets were to blame for their deaths, these civilians will likely be added to the Gazan death toll and blamed on Israel. Israel is not to blame. The sad truth is that Palestinian terrorists have killed more of their own people than they have killed Israelis.
Our prayer is that the terrorists in Gaza will put down their weapons and bring an end to this destruction and death. We also pray that the world will wake up and realise that Israel is doing all it can to protect civilians on both sides of the border while the Palestinian terrorists are the ones killing people on both sides.
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This year, we want to do more to bless Israel and the Jewish people.
We know that as we bless Israel this year, God will bless us, just as He promised in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Now is the time to bless Israel and the Jewish people.
