Two Israelis from the southern town of Sderot are among the wounded in Saturday’s Poway synagogue shooting attack.
Noya Dahan, 8, and her uncle Almog Peretz, 31, were wounded when 19-year-old White nationalist John Earnest burst into the Chabad of Poway where the two were praying and opened fire. He killed congregant Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60. The rabbi of the synagogue, Yisroel Goldstein, was also injured in the attack.
Dahan’s family moved from Israel to the United States to escape the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza on her southern Israeli town. She is the youngest victim of the attack.
BREAKING NEWS: Noya Dahan 8 years old wounded in the #Poway shooting shared this photo to show how strong she is and that she's ok but still needs alot of prayers. pic.twitter.com/FMRIdVehtw
— Mark Kennedy (@RealMarkKennedy) April 28, 2019
Dahan said she wanted her photograph to be "publicized and shared" across social media so that “everyone [would] know she is strong."
The child was struck in the leg by the gunfire.
Her uncle is also being hailed as a hero for saving a number of other children who were in the synagogue during the hail of bullets. In an interview with Fox News, a friend of Peretz, Danny Almog, said that “[The gunman] was just shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting. Like crazy. Just spraying."
"All I cared about was finding my kids," Almog recalled. "I was on the floor crawling to go through the exit" to an area where the children were staying during the service.
While crawling on the floor, Almog spotted his father-in-law using his body to shield one of his children from the bullets. The three family members ran toward an exit when Almog suddenly realized that his daughter was still missing.
"I couldn’t see her anywhere. I was screaming, 'Yuli, Yuli, where are you?' And I was looking for her in the room,” Almog recalled.
Peretz responded to Almog, telling him that "he had my daughter with him," as well as several other children who were in the synagogue at the time.
Peretz, according to Almog, grabbed the kids in his hands and was running toward the exit [when] he saw another kid. He halted and grabbed him, too, and started running. Then, Earnest shot Peretz in the leg.
“He didn’t care,” said Almog. “He kept on running with the kids and just ran out.”
Peretz is recovering at the hospital, along with Goldstein, who was shot in the hand. Medical officials said that all three victims are in stable condition.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry reported that it had checked in with the victims. The Israeli Consul in Los Angeles, Avner Saban, said he spoke with the mother and offered “all the assistance they may require."