Bedouin family prays for girl hurt in Iran attack
New details are emerging about the little Bedouin girl who was the only major Israeli victim of Iran's rocket barrage on the weekend.
The seven-year-old girl, identified as Amina al-hassouni in local media reports, was critically injured when shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile fell on her family's home in a Bedouin town near Arad, in Israel's southern Negev region.
“It fell on us into the house at around 2 in the morning. She was sleeping in the house and we immediately took her to Soroka hospital,” the girl's father, Mohammed al-hassouni, told The Jewish Chronicle, which has obtained exclusive photos of the girl.
The photos, before she was injured, show a smiling little girl with bangs and bright eyes.
She is reportedly in critical condition and underwent surgery for a head wound. She remains in the pediatric intensive care unit at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, the lone medical centre in southern Israel, reports Times of Israel.
“She went through two surgeries. They told us to wait so that's what we are doing. We wait and we pray all the time,” the girl's father said.
The family home is located in the Bedouin village of Al-fura, which does not have official recognition by the national government, and was not equipped with a shelter.
Al-hassouni told The Jewish Chronicle that one of his sons was also injured and treated by doctors but has since returned home.
“He is with us now, but he still suffers,” the father said.
He added that Amina, whom he described as a girl who loves to sing and dance and spend time with her siblings, remains in “serious condition.”
One of Amina's brothers told Haaretz that there are no protected shelters in the area, and the family rushed outside after waking to the sound of explosions.
The Magen David Adom emergency response services reported that it met a car carrying Amina on the way to the hospital and began immediate treatment after she was transferred to an ambulance.
Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said 99 per cent of hundreds of drones and missiles fired at Israel were intercepted. The strike was in retaliation for an airstrike two weeks earlier on a building next to Iran's embassy in Damascus that killed seven members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the top Iranian commander in Syria.
While Israel has not commented on the embassy strike, four unnamed Israeli officials reportedly confirmed to The New York Times that the country was responsible.
“Out of hundreds of launches, only a few rockets penetrated the territory of the State of Israel and caused only minor damage to the infrastructure at the Nabatim base, near the transportation route and the axis in the Hermon area,” Hagari posted on X.