Elderly woman injured during Gaza rocket strike dies from her wounds
89 year-old Rivka Jamil sustained serious injuries while running for shelter in early May
By ANNA AHRONHEIMThe family home hit by Hamas rocket (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)
An 89 year-old woman who was seriously wounded while running to a bomb shelter during the last round of violence between Israel and Hamas passed away on Sunday.The death Rivka Jamil, a resident of Ashkelon, comes two months after she was admitted to Barzilai Medical Center in serious condition and with bruising to her back.“During her hospitalization at Barzilai Medical Center, other problems relating to her health arose which, as a result of her condition gradually deteriorated,” read a statement by the hospital’s spokesperson.Jamil’s son Reuven was quoted by the Mako news service as saying that she died from a “hostile act,” and that she lost her husband during the Yom Kippur War.Her death puts the civilian death toll at five Israelis who lost their lives in the last round of fighting, which saw Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) launch close to 700 rockets towards Israel in the span of less than 48 hours.While the large majority landed in open territory and caused no injuries, 240 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and another 21 hit civilian homes.The rocket barrages in early May claimed the lives of three Israeli civilians: Moshe Agadi, the first Israeli civilian to be killed since 2014 after he was struck by shrapnel to his stomach and chest; Ziad Alhamamda, who was killed after he was critically injured in his chest by shrapnel from a direct strike on a factory in Ashkelon; and Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, who was killed after he suffered severe shrapnel injuries to his chest while running to a shelter in Ashdod.Hamas also fired launched a Kornet anti-tank missile on a civilian van on Route 34 near Kibbutz Erez outside of Sderot, killing 68-year-old Moshe Feder from Kfar Saba.According to the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry, 16 Palestinians have been killed, including several members of the terrorist groups’ rocket-launching cells. Another 80 Palestinians were said to have been injured.Despite being blockaded by Israel and Egypt for over a decade, terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip have been able to increase their missile arsenal in both quality and quantity.
While weapons smuggling into the blockaded enclave from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has decreased over the years, groups in the Strip have invested in producing their own locally-made rockets.Hamas and PIJ have carried out tests on an almost regular basis since the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge, firing rockets towards the sea in an attempt to increase their range and destructive power.Tamar Beeri contributed to this report.
