‘Attack on Erez crossing could have ended much worse’
Injured soldiers recount Sunday’s mortar attack on IDF facility on Israel-Gaza border
“At this point I heard a mortar landing just a few feet away and shrapnel hit my leg and a few other places.”
During the attack one IDF soldier was moderately injured and three were lightly hurt after being hit by three mortar shells fired at the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. The injured were evacuated to the Barzilay Medical Center in Ashkelon along with six other troops who suffered from shock.
'We’re used to living under these threats'
Two additional mortar shells landed in a hothouse and in an open area in Gaza vicinity communities. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yisrael Beitenu ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Yitzhak Aharonovitch visited the injured soldiers at the hospital.
One soldier told Lieberman, “the mortar landed about 10 meters from us. I ran outside because I thought there may be soldiers who were hurt and in need of help. Then I felt shrapnel strike me in several places.
“Luckily I wasn’t seriously injured. It could have ended much worse,” he said.
The soldiers said that due to the army base’s close proximity to Gaza there is a constant threat of mortar and rocket attacks, and told Lieberman that the base is only partially fortified.
“We’re used to living under these threats,” one soldier said. “There is partial protection against some of the threats, but not all of them.”
