4-Year-Old Israeli Boy Killed by Rocket Fired From Hamas Facility in Gaza

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Saturday, August 23, 2014

An Israeli girl hangs a drawing on the door of a public bomb shelter in the southern city of Ashkelon August 4, 2014. In Israeli southern communities hit by daily rocket and mortar bomb attacks from the Gaza Strip, some residents remained in their shelters, waiting tensely to see if a 72-hour Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that went into effect on Tuesday would hold. In Gaza, Palestinians who sheltered in U.N.-run schools began returning to towns and villages to examine the widespread damage from four weeks of fierce fighting. Picture taken August 4, 2014. | (Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen)

Hundreds of rockets landed in Israel Friday, including one that was fired from near a school that is being maintained by Hamas in Gaza and that killed a four-year-old Israeli boy in southern Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The rocket that killed the boy, identified as Daniel Tregerman, hit a kibbutz (Hebrew word for "communal settlement") in Sdot Negev village in the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council early Friday evening, Jerusalem Post reported, adding that "hundreds of rockets" were fired into Israel Friday.

"#IDF concludes that the mortar launched today that killed 4 year old Daniel Tragerman was fired from near a school that is an @UNRWA shelter," Peter Lerner, EDF Spokesman for International Media & Commander of the IDF Social Media activities, tweeted.

However, later, Lerner corrected his statement, saying the school was "rather a shelter maintained by #Hamas authorities in #Gaza."

During the deadliest days of the war, UNRWA officials went on record accusing the Israeli government of violating international humanitarian law, the Post noted. UNRWA, which is supposed to be neutral in the conflict, is responsible for the welfare of Palestine refugees.

In response to the airstrike by Hamas, Israel hit Gaza with 30 airstrikes, which resulted in at least eight Palestinian deaths, according to Sky News. Israel has vowed, "Hamas will pay a heavy price" for the death of the Israeli child.

Also on Friday, Hamas said it killed 18 people suspected of being informers for Israel. While 11 were killed by firing squad at the Gaza City police headquarters, seven others had been targeted by masked gunmen near a mosque, the militant group said.

Two of those killed were women, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip re-erupted Tuesday after the collapse of Egyptian-brokered cease-fire talks.

Tregerman is the fourth civilian in Israel to be killed since the outbreak of the conflict July 8.

Over 2,000 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and 68 Israelis – mainly soldiers – have died in the fighting thus far, according to the U.K.'s Independent newspaper. Israel began its attack in Gaza last month in response to an increase in cross-border rocket strikes by Hamas militants.

On Thursday, Israel killed three top Hamas commanders, identified as Mohammed Abu Shammala, Raed al Attar and Mohammed Barhoum, by striking a house in southern Gaza.