Erev Yom Kippur: Hezbollah Explosive UAV Slams into Herzliya Nursing Home - Video
God knows they didn't deserve this vicious attack on the holiest Day of the Jewish Year
While there were no physical injuries in the strike on Friday night, one elderly resident, a veteran member of evacuated kibbutz Nirim along the Gaza Strip, later passed away over Shabbat.
Patients and staff were - thankfully - in protected spaces during the dastardly late-night attack, which tried to kill the elderly and infirm in their beds.
In a touching obituary, fellow kibbutz member and regional spokesperson, Adele Raemer, noted that the structure was a “…home for the aged in which two of our elder members have been staying since they cannot be home in our kibbutz and have been evacuated to there for over a year.
The two women lived through the attack safely—they were in the shelter at the time—however one of them sadly died a few hours later unrelated to the attack.
I have know שריק דגיאלי Sarik for over 50 years: since I came to Nirim. She was a seamstress. In those days, in the days of the totally socialistic kibuzim, women were allowed to have a garment sewn for them by one of our two resident seamstresses, every year or so. I used to look forward to seeing the little note waiting for me in my mailbox, announcing the fact that my turn had come. I loved those opportunities when I could look in a fashion journal and choose a garment which I loved, and have it sewn for me. Sarik was a very humble person, a quiet person, a sweet person. She will be missed. It breaks my heart to see so many of our veteran members, far from home, unable to live out the last days of their lives in the home they built for themselves, for their families, for us, and which they loved so well.
An adult family member, who was staying with friends a few blocks away from the facility said of the bombing, “it was loud, and then we lost electricity for a bit,” but added that her friend’s young child slept through the commotion, despite “all the ambulances and police going by.”
The Iranian-supplied aerial munition was one of 320 drones and rockets fired into Israel on the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, according to the IDF.
Among them, were numerous strikes on Tzfat, where other family members live:
”Yesterday (Friday) at 17:46 dozens of missiles were fired towards Safed,” according to Municipal Spokesman, Tamir Engel. My wife Miri and I could only watch, helplessly, from our home, about 20 minutes away, as white puffs, distant sparks, and sharp booms a moment later, high in the skies over the city signaled Iron Dome interceptors hitting most of the incoming munitions, and hope our son and his wife, and three small children, were ok.
Most - but not all:
“A fall was reported in the neighborhood in the northern part of the city near the houses [Sapir Street, in Neve Oranim]. One person was lightly injured and was evacuated from the scene. There was a lot of damage to the vehicles and many fragments were scattered in the area. At a distance of about 25 meters from the fall, one of the fragments penetrated a metal door and continued straight to the television in the living room. Also, the supply of electricity and water to part of the neighborhood was temporarily stopped due to damage to the infrastructure.
Today [Shabbat] at 10:56 the alarm was activated in Safed. No injuries or damages were reported.
“Tomorrow, Sunday, there is no change in the directives and restrictions of the Home Front Command continue, including in the education system.”
Besides (tense) Friday night Shabbat/Yom Kippur services, Miri and I spent the last 24 hours at home, to ease the difficulties of fasting, and - for me, at least, to try not to focus on the war - despite many, many IAF attack and service aircraft and helicopters; rockets and Iron Dome Interceptors, and close-up booming as the latter two dueled it out in the skies, overhead - not a conducive "Day of 'At-one-ment" with your soul and Creator” scenario.
Elsewhere in Israel (the top one occurring literally as I’m typing these words - I can hear the distant booms of either impacts or Iron Dome interceptions as I write):
There’s an old military saying that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Nor in “Safe Rooms” in northern Israel.
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David Bender
Excellent review.
Thanks David, for sharing a sobering slice of your daily life. You and yours continue in my prayers. Well, let's not forget the bees either - such marvelous creatures!