In the town of Ar’ara al-Naqab in southern Israel, young people gather near burnt cars due to the fall of a rocket from the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of a child. They talk about their terror at the arrival of the war and demand that the authorities provide them with shelters.
Alaa Abu Jami (30 years old) says he was going to get breakfast for his children on Saturday morning, October 7, when an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel began. As soon as he arrived back in his car in front of his house, the force of a rocket that fell in the area “six meters away” pushed him.
He told Agence France-Presse reported, “I couldn’t move; young people came and took me out of the car. My leg was injured by shrapnel, and I was taken to the hospital for treatment. I stayed for three days without understanding what was happening, without hearing anything, without sleeping… Even now, I wake up at night scared and confused”.
He adds, “The child Yazen (5 years old) was standing at the door of his neighboring house near another car. When the rocket exploded, the car moved from its place and burned along with several other cars, and Yazen was killed… he became pieces”.
The fire continued for two hours, and the fire brigade did not arrive. Abu Jami continues, “The houses shook, and the windows broke,” noting that the residents “brought a bulldozer that covered the fire with soil”, while the rocket created a hole “more than three meters deep”.
The young people gathered in the street confirmed that the residents did not hear any warning sirens.
Zakaria, the father of the child Yazen, who works as a car driver, with tears in his eyes, says, “I was in Eilat on Saturday morning when I learned that my son was killed. I returned amid the exchange of shelling between Hamas and Israel and saw my son in the hospital”. Then his voice chokes, and he cannot continue speaking.
