Kiryat Malachi – Blood stains could be seen up and down the stairwell of the Kiryat Malachi building where three Israelis were killed by a Gaza rocket on Thursday morning, and in the apartments on the top two floors the damage and disarray appeared almost as if a tornado had crashed into the building and scattered everything asunder.
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In one of the two apartments on the top floor there was a bedroom with three beds and a baby crib, and another room with a baby crib, all of them next to the southern side window, and it is unclear why there weren’t even more casualties in the attack.
Benny Hashu, 28, lives near the site of the attack and came to visit because one of the killed is a close friend of his brother.
Hashu spoke with anger and disgust about the neglect and disrepair of the bomb shelters in the buildings, all of which appeared to be trash-strewn or filled with private storage, and at least one was turned into an illegal private apartment, with what appeared to be a full bar set-up.
“The city hall needs to come and open and clean out all of the bomb shelters and worry about the elderly people here who don’t have anywhere to run and can’t anyway if there is a siren.”
Hashu said he supports the IDF operation even as the towns of the South were getting pounded by rockets, saying “as long as we’re attacking them it’s quiet here. We need to eliminate everyone on the list, [Hamas PM Ismail] Haniyeh too.”
Hashu stuck around for a visit by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who he heckled with shouts of “why don’t you worry about the periphery? Go take care of [Haredi city] Harish!”
Around the same time, one of the residents of the apartment complex hung a homemade sign outside their window that read “Jewish blood isn’t cheap – reoccupy Gaza” and “Bibi [Netanyahu] is a coward.”
Dmitri Karol, 68, who lives in the next door building said he was at a nearby synagogue celebrating Rosh Chodesh when the Color Red siren went off. Karol said he continued praying, refusing to run for cover and that after he heard the explosion he and other worshippers stayed for the luncheon, drinking vodka and eating a hearty meal. His dismissal of the rockets wasn’t all bluster though, the parishioner said he usually stays put in his fourth floor apartment as he would not make it to the shelter in time even if he tried.
The situation in this neglected government housing complex is a common one in the cities across the southern periphery; disadvantaged poor residents living in apartments that lack safe rooms in buildings with severely inadequate bomb shelters, all while in the line of fire from the rockets fired from Gaza. A number of residents expressed mixed feelings; on the one hand supporting the IDF operation in Gaza, on the other hand knowing that they are the ones who stand to be targeted when the Gaza rocket crews step up their attacks.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Show much more lives will it (ch”v) take for them to realize that they live in a war zone?
Those living within rocket range are akin to those who didn’t evacuate from “zone A” during Sandy.
My advise, move elsewhere
mira sharf, a pregnant lady , a mother of three, aged 25, a shlucha in mumbai was visiting Israel and was killed on the yarzheit ofthe mumbai kedoshim. BDE, kind of spooky. horrific news!
there are rumors that one of her children also was killed.
her husband lost his hand and the other two children are wounded.
what are we going to do???
#2 , you make no sense. You are saying that they should CH”V put themselves in a tremendous sakana for…what reason?
Yes, until there is no danger of rocket and other attacks, Hashem yishmor, why shouldn’t Israel’s south be evacuated?