Kfar Saba, Israel – Luck and miracles saved the seven members of the Wolf family from certain death, when a rocket destroyed their home in Moshav Mishmeret just before 6 a.m.
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“I nearly lost my family,” said Robert Wolf, as he stood outside the shell of his house, on a tree-lined street with single family homes in the middle of the country, close to Kfar Saba.
“If we had not gotten to the bomb shelter in time, I would now be burying all my family,” he said. “That is two grandchildren, one 5 months old, one 2 years old. That would be my third child, with his wife, my wife, myself and my youngest daughter. They would all have been dead if we didn’t do what we had been supposed to do.”
At Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba where most of the family was treated for light injuries, his son Daniel spoke with reporters about those fatal moments.
By chance, Daniel said, he had slept in the living room and heard the siren. He woke up his parents and younger sister, who were able to find shelter.
His mother, who was moderately injured, was between the kitchen and the safe room. She is undergoing treatment at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah.
Across the street, Ron Gitter and his wife, Racheli, were woken by the siren as they slept in their bedroom on the first floor of their home/ They didn’t make more than a few steps, before they heard a loud explosion and the windows exploded.
“I thought It had fallen in the yard,” Gitter said.
They raced into their son Guy’s bedroom next door, yelling at him, “Wake up, wake up.”
Their son had not stirred from the noise. “He is a heavy sleeper, a tank could roll over him and he wouldn’t notice,” Ron said, almost with a laugh – but not really.
They roused him, then raced one short fight into the basement where their daughter Emy, 13, slept and entered their safe room.
Although the missile had already fallen, they feared that there would be a second one. They waited 10 minutes before venturing out to the smell of gas and smoke.
One of the shards from the missile had cut the gas line. But along with the many miracles that morning, it was not followed by an explosion.
Although they live in the center of the country, it is not the first time that a Gaza missile has hit their community, just the first time it has caused damage. During the 2014 Gaza war, a missile launched from Gaza fell harmlessly in a field nearby.
To put on a face of normality for the children, they sent them to school, just as if it was any other morning. But they stayed home to clean up the damage, and in the process, also opened their home and their yard to reporters.
Added Ron, “It’s frightening.”
We gave them Gaza and they destroyed it. Now it’s Israel’s turn to help them.
“by chance” one of them slept in the living room and heard the siren…chasdei Hashem