While Israel suffered little in the way of significant damage on Sunday (AEST),this one family was dealt a devastating blow. Amina al-Hasoni,7,was clinging to life – the sole serious casualty of the Iranian barrage. And were it not for systemic inequities in Israel,her relatives said,maybe she too could have been spared.
There are roughly 300,000 Arab Bedouins in the Negev desert. About one-quarter of them live in villages that are not recognised by Israeli officials. Without state recognition,those communities have long suffered from a lack of planning and basic services including running water,sewers and electricity. And few have access to bomb shelters,despite repeated requests to the state.
The Hasoni family lives in one such community,sharing a hilltop in the Negev village of al-Fur’ah with a plot of disconnected houses. Amina’s uncle Ismail said he felt stuck when the rocket warning sirens went off – there was nowhere to go.
Booms overhead signalled air defences intercepting missiles before there was a big explosion. Then he heard a woman screaming – his sister – and “I started running,” he said.
Ismail,38,found his sister outside her house holding Amina,who was bleeding from the head. Her family had decided to flee the rockets,running out the front door. But Amina,who slept in a back room with pink walls covered in painted butterflies,didn’t make it.
A missile fragment ripped through the home’s thin metal roof,shearing a hole with sharp metallic edges. It made impact just in front of the door – which is where Amina was knocked unconscious.