A 70-year-old man and his wife paid the price for age and the lack of shelter within immediate reach on Saturday night when they had to make a run for it in a Grad missile attack on Be’er Sheva from Gaza.
Two Grad missiles exploded on an apartment building in a residential neighborhood in the Negev city as the older couple was rushing to reach a shelter, having heard the Code Red incoming rocket alert siren.
But they weren’t quite fast enough, and the missiles hit the building before the couple was able to reach shelter.
They were both hit by flying shrapnel in the explosion. Magen David Adom medics treated them on the scene and then evacuated the couple to nearby Soroka Medical Center, both with light wounds, and listed at present in good condition.
Nine other people suffered trauma symptoms; numerous others suffered with anxiety.
According to a tweet posted by Israel Hatzolah on the Twitter social networking site, the third Grad missile landed directly on a car, and not in an open area as reported by some media.
Much further north, a Katyusha rocket was launched at Israel from southern Lebanon at about the same time. The rocket slammed into an empty home in a community in the Upper Galilee. Two five-year-old children were injured in the attack; both were taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds.
Eight others were also taken to hospital to be treated for shock. Another 13 people were treated on site for anxiety and trauma, according to local security personnel.
It is not yet clear which terrorist organization was responsible for the attack, but Lebanese authorities have tracked the source of the rocket fire to the town of Dheira, in southern Lebanon.
The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system intercepted one missile over Gush Dan in the central region, two missiles over the Shfela region — also in central Israel — and two Qassam rockets that were headed straight for Sderot, barely a mile away from Gaza.
More than 100 missiles and rockets were fired at Israeli civilians from Gaza over the past 24 hours, striking communities from as far south as the Gaza Belt to the greater Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas.