Sderot's War Children

This was on today's daily alert email. It breaks your heart to read. As the bible commands, let us pray for the peace (shalom) of Jerusalem, and all Israel.

Sderot's War Children - Anat Meidan (Ynet News)


The most gut-wrenching moment of Monday's rocket attack on Sderot was 8-year-old Maria caressing the forehead of her older brother, Yossi, 10, while he was lying wounded on the floor of the supermarket. There was no screaming, no panic, and no crying.
Yossi, despite the rocket shrapnel that was lodged in his shoulder, the blood around him, and the incredible pain, maintained incomprehensible restraint. He merely muttered that his shoulder hurts, and his little sister, just like a kind nurse, kept on caressing him.
He was a child hero who a minute earlier was still having fun, just like other children anywhere else in the world. He went to play soccer, after leaving his school bag at home.
How many times did they imagine the possibility that they will be wounded, and what it would be like, and what they would do? Did Yossi wonder whether he would lose his leg, just like 8-year-old Osher Twito, who was wounded only two and a half weeks ago and will no longer be able to play soccer?
A 10-year-old boy should not be a wounded hero, and it is completely unnecessary for an 8-year-old girl to see her brother bleeding. On Monday, a Kassam rocket wrested away the innocence and put an end to the childhood of Yossi and Maria, Sderot's war children.