2 brothers injured in rocket attack on Sderot

An eight-year-old boy sustained serious injuries to his legs and his 19-year-old brother was light-to-moderately wounded when a Qassam fired by Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip landed near a residential building in Sderot Saturday evening.

The mother of the two boys as well as an additional brother suffered from shock in the incident, along with 13 other Sderot residents. 

A total of five rockets landed in Sderot and surrounding areas in the evening hours. One of the rockets made impact near a residential building in the town and injured the two boys who were standing nearby. The brothers were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

The Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's military wing claimed responsibility for the attack.

Deputy Director of Barzilai, Dr. Ron Lobel, told Ynet that five people had arrived to the hospital in connection with the attack in Sderot, including four people from the same family.

The 8-year-old boy was suffering from injuries to his lower body, but Dr. Lobel said that his lungs had not been damaged. His 19-year-old brother sustained shrapnel wounds and had some open abrasions. The mother and third brother, 15, arrived to the hospital in order to be treated for shock, the deputy director said.

The two injured brothers, later identified as Osher and Rami Tuito, are set to undergo surgery on their legs.

Site of rocket impact (Photo: Amir Cohen)

Avner Chen, a taxi driver that was passing through the area of the attack, told Ynet that "I heard the 'Color Red' (siren) and I started running quickly from the car and laid down on the road and then I heard the very loud explosion right next to me.

"I saw smoke and when I got up, I saw the boy and another youngster outstretched on the road, one of them was very seriously wounded and it looked horrendous.

"I tried to stop the flow of blood and then the second one shouted 'help me, save me!' and I went to the second one and started to help him as well. At the same time, I called for Magen David Adom and the fire department on the radio.

"It was a dreadful sight, one of the worst I've seen in my life," Chen said.

Morning barrage

Hundreds of furious Sderot residents took to the streets minutes after the Qassam struck the embattled town. Some burned tires and called on the Israeli government to go through with the often-mentioned plan for a broad incursion into the Gaza Strip to root out terrorist infrastructure.

Local police attempted to disperse the crowds for fear that another projectile could come crashing down causing mass casualties. In one incident, a disaster was narrowly averted when protestors blocked a junction and caused a traffic jam on the road. Later, a Qassam rocket landed on the blocked road around 500 feet from the demonstrators.

Within Gaza, terrorists celebrated their "success", as gunmen from the Al-Quds Brigades fired in the air and broadcasted victory messages from mosque loudspeakers.

Two Qassam rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip landed in the Shaar Hanegev regional council Saturday morning. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

At around 8:30 am, the Color Red alert system was activated in the Sderot area, followed by two explosions.

Simultaneously, the IDF attacked a terrorist cell spotted near mobile rocket launching pads in the northern Strip. The army reported that a hit was identified. Palestinian medics said the airstrike seriously wounded a member of a Gaza rocket squad.

About three hours later, the army struck four Qassam launching pads in the northern Strip. No injuries were reported.

Ali Waked and Hanan Greenberg contributed to this report