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Yuval Abebeh, 4, and Dorit Aniso, 2.
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2The entrance to the home in which the children were killed.
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| September 29, 2004 |
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Two Kassam rockets fired from the Jabalya refugee camp landed in the western Negev Israeli town of Sderot. One hit a house, the other landed in the middle of an alley filled with playing children.
One rocket killed Yuval Abebeh, 4, and Dorit Aniso, 2, members of the same family, as the were playing together in the family sukka, a festive hut which Jewish traditionally build for the Sukkot festival.
31 people were wounded, seven with medium or serious injuries. Doctors are trying to save the life of a seriously injured girl, 10.
"A small child can no longer play outside? Why does a child playing in a sukkah [booth] have to die?? Yuval?s mother, Asras Chahayo Caso, asked through her tears.
Speaking to Ynet following the tragedy, Caso took readers through the last few moments of her son?s short life.
"We were sitting outside my mother?s house. My son was playing? Everything was normal. I watched him. He was having so much fun."
"Suddenly there was a distant explosion," Caso recalled. "We understood it was a Kassam, but didn?t stop to think where it had landed. And then there was another explosion right next to me."
"Everything was black. Everyone was screaming. I searched for my Yuval. Suddenly I saw him next to me. His body was mutilated. I don?t think he had hands. I immediately understood he was dead. There was no doubt," the distraught mother said.
"Yuval was everything to me," she said.
A local man, Ronen Edri, reached the site of the attack immediately after the rockets fell. He saw a boy with head and body wounds lying in the street and tried to give him first aid. "There was a great deal of hysteria all around," he said. "People were screaming and crying from shock. I tried to stem the boy's bleeding, and then Magen David Adom [ambulance] personnel arrived and took him away."
"After the rocket fell, a man, maybe 20 years old, took the boy in his arms. He was in shock. He ran with the boy, he didn't know what to do," said Zina Shurov, 48, a neighbor.
"I saw one little child without his legs. We tried to help the other one but it was too late," said neighbor Haviv Ben Abbo, who rushed to the scene when he heard the boom. "All our town is crying."
Hamas took credit for the fatal attack. A Hamas leader in Gaza camp said: "We will keep firing rockets, we will continue jihad until all of Palestine is returned." Hamas on Wednesday demonstrated that it is undeterred, firing the rockets even as the Israeli army operates nearby with tanks.
Sharon: "Do everything to stop Kassam fire"
The IDF has trisected the Gaza Strip and is operating intensively in its northeast corner. The IDF has been operating in the part of Gaza closest to Sderot with armored units, trying to destroy the Kassam factories and those who launch the rockets. Four Palestinians have been killed in that area.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called Sderot mayor Eli Moyal and said that the IDF's response would be harsh. Sharon was quoted by the media as ordering the army to "do everything to stop Kassam fire." But media analysts voiced doubts that the army would do anything dramatic or creative.
Military analysts expect activity to sharply intensify and expand, and there is talk that reserves will be called up for the continuing mission.
7 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Wednesday, including two more killed in a heavy firefight after the fatal Kassam landed in Sderot.
This morning an Israeli soldier was killed and two were wounded, one seriously, in a firefight in Bet Hanun, source of many of the rocket launches.
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