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Mother, child hurt by rocket By Yigal Hai Avital Afgin, 24, was hoping to spend quality time with her 2-year-old daughter Tair when a Palestinian Grad rocket slammed into an Ashkelon mall yesterday afternoon, injuring them and at least 80 others. Both sustained serious injuries from potentially-lethal shrapnel wounds that covered their bodies. Advertisement Mother and child are both in serious but stable condition, a senior doctor at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon told Haaretz. "They are both under anesthesia for the initial stages of treatment and diagnosis," Barzilai Deputy Director General, Dr. Arnon Afek, told Haaretz. "They are suffering from multiple shrapnel wounds. Fortunately, most of the injuries are superficial." Afek said both patients were undergoing surgery. "Treatment of patients suffering from massive trauma is complex," he said. "We're taking care of the most urgent problems and complications, but there are other injuries that require close attention." Avital Afgin's mother, Pnina Shlomi, said her daughter was at the mall for a doctor's appointment, and that she had decided to take her daughter with her because she wanted to spend more time with her. "My daughter works as a homeroom teacher in Kiryat Malachi while completing her studies," Shlomi said. "She was going through a pretty busy time in her life, so she decided to take Tair with her. It was important for her to spend more time with her." Afgin has another child, a six-month-old boy, Roi, whom Pnina was babysitting while Afgin went to the doctor with Tair. "Then I heard that they fired a rocket on Ashkelon. When I first heard, I thought to myself that I hope that it landed in open territory," she recalls. "Then they said on the news that it exploded inside a shopping mall. I tried calling Avital on her cell phone but got no response. I immediately drove down there. I saw Avital's car in the parking lot and I knew it was a bad sign. So I went over to the hospital and they told me that they were both there." Last year, Avital and her husband moved from Kiryat Malachi to Ashkelon to be closer to Pnina. "I told her to move here so I could help her with the kids," she said while anxiously awaiting news of her daughter and granddaughter. "She wasn't afraid to move down here at all. Her faith was strong." Asked about her granddaughter, Pnina Shlomi said: "Tair is a charming girl, full of joy. She has a rich vocabulary and she already constructs long sentences." Avital Afgin's husband, 25-year-old Adi, came to the hospital along with many other relatives, after they heard the news. "They need to make it out of this," said Betzalel Giladi, an uncle of Avital Afgin, as he waited at Barzilai's reception hall. "It's a young family. They have their whole future ahead of them. When they had the baby half a year ago, there was so much joy in that house." Another uncle, Refael, said: "We can't believe this is happening. Avital is a pure soul. She and her child never deserved any of this." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Animated massacre Animated Israeli film at Cannes explores Sabra and Shatila massacre. Kowtowing to funders When papers are sponsored, can their reporting be truly independent?

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