Four family members sustained shrapnel injuries Saturday when a rocket fired from Gaza scored a direct hit on a home in southern Israel.
A Magen David Adom emergency medical technician said a rocket had hit the Buchris family home in Sderot. A second rocket exploded next to a synagogue in the city at around the same time, causing no casualties.
Paramedics treated the father, 52-year-old Aharon Buchris, for injuries to the forehead and legs; his 14-year-old daughter who sustained face and leg wounds; her 15-year-old sister with face lacerations; and his wife, 45, who needed shrapnel removed from her legs.
The Buchris family were the first casualties on the Israeli side in the latest flare-up in violence between Israel and Hamas terrorists.
"All the glass in the living room fell on us," Aharon recalled. "The aquarium, the televisions – everything exploded. The entire house was full of smoke and we were all covered in blood."
"After a few minutes, the neighbors called the paramedics. I got a shrapnel shard in my face and others in my legs. My wife and girls were also hurt," he said.
One of the rockets exploded some 200 yards from the home of Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, who spoke to residents and helped direct emergency crews dispatched to the scene.
"It was simply a miracle," said Livnat Edri, who had been walking down a street when the rocket hit. "I was on the street, and about 100 yards away I saw and heard the [rocket] fall, and one person running away. Luckily it ended well, because two minutes later and I would have been at that exact spot, and who knows how that would have ended."
Another Sderot resident, Lidor Sapir, said: "Because we live next to unpredictable neighbors, we are always on alert. Being on alert isn't enough, because you never know when or where the rocket will land on you."
It was one of the most serious flare-ups of fighting since Operation Protective Edge in 2014 but the IDF's chief spokesman, Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis, said it was premature to say whether it heralded the start of a broader campaign against Hamas.
Elsewhere in the south, sirens blared Friday night across the Eshkol and Shaar Hanegev regions. Residents spent much of the night in bomb shelters and safe rooms.
A mortar round fired from Gaza hit a chicken coop in the Eshkol region but only damaged the structure. GOC Southern Command, meanwhile, issued a directive to close Zikim beach.
