Moshe Agadi: Israeli Civilian Killed in Rocket Attack

Moshe Agadi, one of the Israeli civilians killed in a rocket attack from Gaza, was a father of four credited with giving his family hope. Agadi was named as the first Israeli killed in the Hamas rocket attacks into Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces say Hamas fired “hundreds of rockets” from the Gaza Strip into Israel; Gaza officials then claimed that Israel had sent airstrikes into Gaza. Israel insists it’s hitting “terrorist targets.” Moshe Agadi was killed when a rocket hit a building in Ashkelon, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Relatives mourn during the funeral of Israeli Moshe Agadi at a cemetery in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon near the Gaza border on May 5, 2019. – Agadi, a 58-year-old father of four from the city, was outside his home when a rocket hit.

Haaretz reported that Israeli citizens who were killed are Moshe Agadi, 58; Ziad Alhamada, 49; Moshe Feder, 67; and Pinchas Menachem Pshuzman, 21.

In the latest escalation, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said on May 5, 2019 that the United States was sending a “carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East” as a warning to Iran that it will protect its allies if necessary, according to CNBC.

Here’s what you need to know:

Moshe Agadi, Who Ran Produce Stands, Went Out for a Cigarette & Didn’t Come Back

The Times of Israel quoted friends of Moshe Agadi as saying he was a “hard worker who ran a pair of produce stands at the Ashkelon open market.”

“I worked beside him for almost 30 years at the market. I never heard a bad thing come out of his mouth,” said Baruch Sa’ada to The Times of Israel.

Agadi, according to The Jerusalem Post, “was hit with shrapnel in his chest as a rocket hit his home in Ashkelon. He died en route to the hospital.”

“Moshe went out for a cigarette between every few rocket sirens,” his brother Shmulik said to the Israeli news site. “That time he did not make it back into the shelter in time. The paramedics tried performing CPR and he was rushed to the hospital, but he did not make it.”

Shai, another brother, told Army Radio that “Moshe always showed his respect to everyone. We don’t know how to keep going, if Moshe was here he would find us hope, now we are helpless.”

Attendance at Moshe Agadi’s Funeral Was Limited by Directive Because of the Rocket Attacks

There was an outpouring of grief for Moshe Agadi. However, according to The Times of Israel, in normal circumstances, many more people would have attended Moshe Agadi’s funeral.

The limited attendance was for people’s protection; the Times of Israel noted that the directive from IDF’s Home Front Command prohibits “any gatherings of more than 300 people in the range of Gaza rockets amid the ongoing barrages.”

There Are Also Civilian Casualties on the Palestinian Side

A picture taken on May 5, 2019, shows the remains of a building in Gaza City after it was hit during Israeli air strikes. – Israel’s military carried out waves of retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip today after Palestinian rockets hit Israeli cities as a deadly escalation showed no signs of slowing, raising fears of war.

Siba Abu Arar, a 14-month-old girl, and her pregnant aunt, Falastin Saleh Abu Arar, were killed during the unrest in Gaza. (The child’s name is sometimes given as Saba Abu Arar). However, Israel and Hamas disagree on which side caused the deaths, with each blaming the other.

Relatives of Siba Abu Arar held the dead child aloft for graphic and emotional photos that expressed their extreme grief.

According to Vox, the death toll on May 5 stood at 12 Palestinians and four Israelis (according to News Now, at least six of the Palestinians killed were “militants.”)

According to Haaretz, the Israeli Army claimed that Hamas caused the deaths of the child and woman, refuting claims by Palestinians, who earlier had claimed they were killed by Israeli airstrikes.