Israeli teen injured by Palestinian shell dies of wounds

Monday April 18, 2011 19:06 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

A 16-year old boy who was in a schoolbus struck by a Palestinian shell on Thursday April 7th died of his wounds Sunday. He and a bus driver, who were the only people on the bus when it was hit, were both injured – the youth in his head and the driver with shrapnel in his leg.

Israeli police carry homemade shell fired by Palestinian fighters (archive image)

Most Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, condemned the attack on the bus, which came after a week of air strikes by the Israeli military which killed four Palestinian fighters and a civilian, and injured 10, including a pregnant woman.

After the Palestinian shell hit the bus, the air strikes by Israeli forces accelerated, and 18 Palestinians, including a grandmother, mother, and her two children, were killed in the next three days. Palestinian resistance groups also fired an estimated 120 shells into Israel during that period, causing one injury and slight damage to one water pipe.

The homemade shells fired by Palestinian resistance groups are crude metal pipes fitted with an explosive charge for propulsion. They have no aiming capability and no explosive tips, so they hit random targets across the Gaza-Israel border and do not explode when they hit.

16-year old Daniel Viflic was taken to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, in southern Israel, after being hit in the head by shrapnel when the shell, fired by Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza, hit the bus.

According to the head of intensive care at the hospital, “He arrived in critical condition and shortly afterward his brain stopped functioning. Due to the sensitive nature of the event, we continued treatments despite knowing that he had no chance of recovery.”

israel | palestinian attacks | news report saed at imemc dot org