December 30, 2008 / 3 Tevet 5769

“Angels came to visit me this morning,” recalled Shmuel Shmila from the town of Netivot, referring to the arrival of two representatives from the Jewish Agency's Fund for Victims of Terror who handed him a check after a rocket landed near his home. The Jewish Agency's Fund for Victims of Terror and its SOS Emergency Fund, was created by United Jewish Communities' Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC) and Keren Hayesod.

Last Saturday, December 26, 2008, a Kassam rocket landed in the yard of Shmuel’s neighbor.  Shrapnel from the rocket struck his thirty one year old daughter Hila.  Six pieces of shrapnel penetrated her stomach and hit internal organs, and she was brought to the hospital in moderate to serious condition.  The hospital staff operated on Hila and removed all the pieces of shrapnel, except for one piece which was wedged in her kidney.  “They told us that the kidney would expel the piece,” Shmuel relates, “and if not, they would do an x-ray in another six months and try to remove it from the kidney.”

The house was damaged by the shrapnel.  Property tax officials who came to Shmuel’s home told him that he must repair the damage and bring them receipts, and then they will reimburse him.  “Then,” Shmuel continued, “two angels from the Jewish Agency knocked on the door and gave me the aid I needed.  I would have thanked them even if this had been just a loan, but they told me it was a grant.  They and the generous donors deserve all the credit in the world.  It was truly as though angels came down from the heavens to us!”

Their daughter, Hila, is recovering from her wounds.  “Thank goodness, Baruch Hashem, she feels better.  She has begun recovering and we are trying to have her walk.  With God’s help she will soon regain her full strength.  We are looking at this from the perspective of ‘it is all for the best.’  With God’s help, all will be well.  Look, the shrapnel didn’t hit our daughter in the heart, God forbid, and it was not far from there.  The Kassam landed in the yard and not inside our house, thank God!”