Targeting civilians is a war crime; the Arabs attacking Israeli civilians are guilty of war crimes with impunity.
On Wednesday, December 26, 2018, I attended a dinner event, at the Town Netivot, Israel, that was called “A day to cherish the fallen and wounded of the wars of Israel and the victims of terror actions”; the event was under the auspices of the “Victims of Hostilities and Terror Acts Organization,” headed by Abie Moses, Chairman, and Attorney Roi Cohen, CEO.
The sign at the door said: The Organization embraces the victims of hostile and terror acts from which the residents of the south [of Israel] and the Gaza perimeter suffered. The region has been under rocket fire and terror activities from Gaza, for endless months.
The Attack
On Saturday night, April 11, 1987, the Moses family – Father Abie, mother Ofra, children Nir, Adi and Tal and Nir’s friend – traveled in their car from Alfei Menashe to Tel Aviv to buy presents for the Passover holiday that was to take place two days later.
As their car passed by the Arab village Habla, the terrorist Muhammad Daoud threw a Molotov cocktail at their vehicle. The Molotov cocktail was thrown at the windshield of the vehicle, and in the front seat was sitting Ofra Moses, who was six months pregnant. The bottle flared and the vehicle turned into a fire trap.
Abie Moses tried to get his wife out the car, but because of the impact of the Molotov cocktail he could not open the car door on the side where his wife was sitting and she did not make it out alive. Their 5-year-old son, Tal, was critically wounded. He was hospitalized and died of his wounds three months later.
Abie managed to get his children Adi and Nir, who were seriously injured, out of the car and he himself was also seriously injured in the attack.
After the Attack
The terrorist was arrested in December 1987, while he was attempting to carry out another attack with a car bomb and gas canisters. During his interrogation he confessed that he carried out the attacks as part of his attempt to be accepted into the ranks of Fatah; he was sentenced to two life sentences plus 72 more years in prison.
About two years after the attack, Abie Moses joined the “Victims of Hostilities and Terror Acts Organization” and became active in the organization. Since 2017 he has served as the Chairman of the Organization.
Hodaya Ben-Hemo, of the city of Beer-Sheva, is twice a victim of terror; she was injured at the age of seven and thirteen when a rocket hit her home twice. The Ben-Hemo family is suffering from continuous anxiety and Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Operation Protective Edge
In 2014 Israel enter one other conflict with Gaza, known as Operation Protective Edge (Hebrew: מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן , Miv’tza Tzuk Eitan; “Operation Strong Cliff”), also referred to as the 2014 Gaza war. It was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip after ongoing barrage of rockets was fired at Israel.
Yarin Levy
Yarin Levy, from Ashkelon, was a 16-year-old boy in 2014. On Sunday, July 13, 2014, Yarin was wounded by a Grad rocket. Yarin was wounded by shrapnel in the chest and groin and arrived at the hospital in serious condition.
While he was on his way to the barbershop, Yarin was caught by the sound if the siren of war; he got on his knees and put his hands on his head. The Grad fell a few yards from Yarin and one piece of the Grad’s shrapnel hit his chest and ribs. While wounded, Yarin tried to get on his feet and run home, but a few meters later he collapsed in a grove near his home.
These days Yarin is doing his military duty with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).
I met Yarin, his mother Mor and his father Avinoam in the United States when they were invited to attend the annual gala of American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA), Los Angeles. There Yarin told the event’s attendees his injury case story and there, for the first time after his injury, he faced, in a tear-jerker meeting, the two paramedics who saved his life.
I since remained friends with the Levy family.
While in Israel, this December 2018, I was invited by the Levy family to join them for dinner and meet people who share the same trauma they experienced in 2014.
Israel’s Social Security Services has finally recognized the victims of terror and they now receive help and support from the government.
Sitting among people who are victims of war crimes saddened me deeply.
A government whose citizens continually become victims of terror is doing something wrong.
My question to the Government of Israel is: when will this phenomenon end, truly end?
