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One Kassam Too Many
The evening of the 9th of February an 8-year old boy lost his left leg and has undergone serveral operations in an attempt to save his right leg following a missile attack on Sderot by Hamas terrorists from Gaza. His brother, age 18, with extensive injuries caused by the same missile, also remains hospitalized following a number of operations.
The boys had been on the way to withdraw money to buy a gift for their grandfather. There was no way for them to get to a shelter before the missile hit. Thousands of Kassams, and some Ketyushas have been fired recently -- from 10 to over 30 in a day at areas surrounding Gaza, most at Sderot. The majority have at most caused property damage, however, some have caused severe shock and emotional distress for which civilians had to be hospitalized. One landed a few meters from a full kindergarten, one near a college, some in factories, some in fields. A few of the missiles were fired at nearby Ashkelon, so far with little damage and no casualties.
None, however, have raised the level of consciousness in Israel as the one which injured the two boys. While it could just have easily have been 20 or 30 kindergarteners, the picture of this one little boy who had lost one leg and might lose the other, personalized the danger and awakened an apathetic public, deafened by the constant drumming of alerts and news of missiles, bombs, knifings, threats and propaganda.
This one small boy's tragedy could possibly achieve something that even the mismanaged Lebanon War of 2006 has not and that is, to bring down the current dangerously inept Israeli government. It should not require the injury of another child to make Israel realize she must use all force necessary to defend herself.
Terror Attack in Jerusalem -- UPDATE