Death in the heart of coexistence: Souheil, the son of 67-year-old Labiba Mazawi, says his mother died because she was outside her relatives' house when a rocket fell nearby.
The strike also claimed the lives of Hanna Hamam (62) and Ronny Robinsky (30) from Kiryat Motzkin. One of the rockets hit a residential building in town, causing the structure to collapse. Several people were trapped under the building, including Mazawi, whose body was recovered from underneath the rubble. The other two residents were evacuated to the hospital in critical condition where they died of their wounds.
"My mother died after making sure that all children and grandchildren who were outside the house where inside. As she ran to enter the house herself to seek shelter she was hit by the Katyusha," said Souheil, a resident of the Israeli-Arab neighborhood of Abu Nisnas in Haifa.
Labiba was at her relatives Laila and Hana Hamam when a rocket hit their home.
Hanna, 62, and another man who has not been identified, were also killed in the attack.
The house in which Hana was sheltering collapsed, trapping a number of people under the rubble. Labiba was killed instantly while the other two victims died in hospital.
"Mother was a religious and humble woman, a mother of four and a grandmother of 12 grandchildren," the son said. "All these years she was a housewife and raised her children. She invested her life in that."
Souheil added that his mother was scared of sirens and rushed to an internal room inside her house following instructions of the IDF Home Front Command.
"She made sure her grandchildren were in and suffered shrapnel wounds. After the fire I called her house but no one answered," Souheil said. His wife told him that their relatives' house sustained a direct hit.
Hanna's son Edward said: "We all rushed to an internal underground room in the house as we did during each siren until now. Our children ran inside the house. My father and our neighbor also ran inside. There was a big boom when I entered the house. It was dark all we saw was black. I ran outside and saw my father unconscious on the floor. Our neighbor Labiba was blown away by the impact and died. They tried to resuscitate my father but he died in hospital."
"What's amazing is that my father never went to the doctor for fear that of needles and ended up dying of shrapnel wounds to his boby."
Ahiya Raved contributed to this report