Boy hurt in Gaza rocket attack on Israeli bus dies of his wounds
16-year-old Daniel Viflic dies after Palestinian militants launch rocket at Israeli school bus earlier this month, which sparked an escalation in cross-border fire.
By Haaretz ServiceThe teenager who was critically wounded after Gaza militants launched an anti-aircraft missile at a school bus in southern Israel earlier this month succumbed to his wounds Sunday.
16-year-old Daniel Viflic died in the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva after his condition seriously deteriorated last week.
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Bus damaged by missile strike from Gaza which wounded two people, April 7, 2011. |
| Photo by: Ilan Assayag |
The missile hit the bus traveling near Kibbutz Sa'ad just moments after it had dropped off the rest of the school children, wounding Viflic and the bus driver, who was moderately wounded by shrapnel wounds in his leg.
"Sadly, Daniel passed away this afternoon," said Professor Shaul Sofer, the director of the intensive care unit at the Soroka Medical Center. "It wasn't a surprise for us. He arrived in critical condition and shortly afterward his brain stopped functioning. Due to the sensitive nature of the event, we continued treatments despite knowing that he had no chance of recovery."
Yitzhak Viflic, Daniel's father, thanked the doctors and the supporters of his family. "Daniel fought but passed away calmly. I am positive he is in a good place now."
Viflic was a resident of Beit Shemesh and studied in a yeshiva there. When he was wounded, he was on his way to the western Negev to visit his grandmother.
Following the bus attack, cross-border fire between Gaza and Israel seriously escalated. Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel and IDF forces launched numerous attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip.
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If deliberately firing an anti-tank missile at a school bus and killing a schoolboy isn't a war crime, nothing is. Where are the Voices for Peace? Where is Judge Goldstone? Where is Ban Ki Moon? Where is the UN Human Rights Commission? Where are the indignant Security Council Resolutions? Where is Hillary? Where are the silly Rabbis for Peace? Where is CNN, NPR, the NY Times, BBC? Where are the Anarchist Columnists? Where is Helen Thomas? Gideon Levy? Tom Friedman? Linda Gradstein? Where is J-Street? Don't worry. They'll be back just as soon as they can invent something else to bash Israel with. HYPOCRITES!!! DANGEROUS HYPOCRITES!!!
we pray for the parents ! God bless them
I am so sorry about the death of this child. The enemies of Israel are not animals; rather they are monsters. If Israel had the same lack of morality as her enemies, she would have turned their cowardly hiding places (homes, schools, mosques, hospitals into parking lots by now. Sadly, as long as Israel retains her moral sense, her enemies will not be defeated. Instead, the monsters will continue their heinous, evil acts.
Do you read the news?
But still this is the first Israeli to die this year when there are at least 100 dead Palestinians, at least a quarter of them children, women and elderly people. War sucks. All the more reason to strike a peace deal already and end the violence and the killings on both sides. And way to manipulate semantics. A 16 year old Israeli is a "boy" a 12 or 8 year old Palestinian is a Palestinian.
The only way to stop Hamas and their friends is just to level Gaza. That's the only thing they deserve. No other country would allow one single rocket. Israel allows thousands. That's very sad.
It is not a death ratio, it is who started the war. All gaza was given to palestinians, and EVERY jew was removed. This encouraged more terrorist attacks, not less.
My condolences,but that's the result of not having a real peace all leaders of the conflict are responsible for the death of innocent civilians on both sides.
Your condolences are nice, but I disagree with your follow-up It is possible to be in a state of war without the intentional killing of civilians. Please dont let the perpetrators of this crime off so easily.
How many of you ever apologize to the Palestinians for the slaughter of their women and children?
Who would be making excuses for you?
one of many victims in the ongoing conlict. may he rest in peace, and may the perpetrators be punished in due course. amen
Now this boy has died its only going to increase the public demand for action to be taken. Iron Dome will divert attention from the need for Cast Lead 2 for only so long and eventually people will say enough is enough do something. We do need Cast Lead 2 but this time not one thats called off unfinished so Livni can get back to her election campaign. Destroy the Hamas arms dumps and let the army decide what the objectives should be, how to do it and how long the operation should last.
Still you want more blood and more condemnation when it is Israel that is causing all of this. Peace already you warmongers!
Israelis don't want anybody's blood. They just want live in peace. "Palestinians" want to kill. Who are Palestinians. Nobody wanted them: not Egypt not Jordan not Saudi Arabia - nobody. Read some history of this area.
It was not murder, we try to isolate hostile targets, but they have no concept of civilians, not in targeting and not when they hide behind their families. Few in Gaza do not aid, equip, hide, shelter and fight alongside terrorists. You will understand this when they come for you, just like in Cyprus, just like in Spain, just like in Chechnya and India and South Sudan, but then it will be too late to save you.
and israel agrees to ceasefire.....what a sick world
Murdered by the IDF? Still, THEY agree to a ceasefire...
mk ultra..I think it is time for you to fold your tent of arab propaganda and slither away like the terrorist vipers you represent. The palestinians have sealed their fate with the election of hamas and hamas has sealed the fate of the palestinians by infiltrating their neighborhoods and using these neighborhoods to wage war from. If you cannot distinguish the difference between a school bus and a house filled with weapons and rockets then there is no talking to you..enough said.
But punishing all the Palestinians won't solve anything.
May God rest his soul. I am sure it is just as painful for Israeli parents to lose their children as it is for Palestinian parents to lose theirs. There is no consolation for this kind of grief, except for a resolution to this conflict between the two sides. Israel has to wake up to the realization that the Netanyahu/Lieberman government cannot continue to maintain their hold on a barbaric occupation and expect the Palestinians to not resist. They have every right to resist through non-violent means, not by way of qassam rockets. This illegal occupation must end and the oppressive siege on Gaza must be lifted, Hamas must be dealt with diplomatically whether Israelis like it or not. Tit-for-tat killings resolve absolutely nothing and only serve to exacerbate the situation; unfortunately this has been proven to be true repeatedly. Enough bloodshed already.
What's the condition of the dozens of Palestinian kids who got critically injured by IAF's F 16 during last week's flare up ?
Israel should do a major attack on gaza military to avenge this innocent boy
Fair is fair! Not that you know what that is or anything.
But it won't solve anything. Stuff is just becoming more complicated all the time. Unfortunately, it is very likely that in a matter of time, unless we start doing something over here, the Israelis and Arabs are likely to get tangled in another War. This is what I would like to see happen. I think that all the Helen Thomases and Meir Kahanes over here need to be marginalized by the American Jews and American Arabs. American Jews and American Arabs need to create a Peace Coalition to guide the People in that region of the World to stop fighting and learn how to live together. I'm not sure if that's possible but that's what I would like to see.
RIP Daniel...
A boy, civilian, coming from the school, died because hi is israeli or merely a boy coming from the school. UN Human Rights (¿right?) will organize a new biased report? Life values related to politically (or economically) correct?
Jose, what about the Palestinian children who are murdered by Israel on a weekly basis? No hypocrisy there, eh? Get a clue, vale. Get a clue!
The clearly marked SCHOOL BUS was a chosen target.
These barbaric backward savages will be hunted down and punished.
Thank you Israeli Leftists!
Unfortunately we might have to wait until Lieberman becomes PM.
I love Bibi, but Lieberman is my hero....
if Lieberman got elected from jail. Never say never in politics.