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Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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24
May 31 • 2007
Tel Aviv
B
oth were in their 30s, killed
on the streets of Sderot by
rockets fired from the neigh-
boring Gaza Strip.
The deaths of Shirel Friedman and
Oshri Oz within a week of each other
illustrate just how dangerous life in
the small border town of Sderot has
become, making driving down the
road toward a job or hurrying home
to grab a sweater acts of Russian
Roulette.
Oz was killed Sunday morning, May
27, as he drove to the office where
he did computer networking twice a
week. He had said goodbye that morn-
ing to his 3-year-old daughter and his
wife, Susanna — eight months preg-
nant — in the Tel Aviv suburb of Hod
Hasharon.
He was just a few feet away from the
office when a Kassam rocket crashed
near his car. Oz, hit by shrapnel, stum-
bled out of the car and collapsed
onto the road.
Among the paramedics that treated
him was a friend from the Sea Scouts,
a sailing youth group, who worked in
Sderot. Avi Teiger said Oz's face was so
covered with blood that he could not
recognize him. "It's a very cruel coinci-
dence," he told Ha'aretz.
Oz's wife, who saw the smoldering
remains of his car on television,
reportedly collapsed and is now in the
hospital. Friends are worried how she
will manage alone with a new baby
and young daughter.
Among those at his funeral Monday
were childhood friends from the Sea
Scouts, with whom Oz had gathered
the night before for a reunion.
Friedman was killed on May 21. She
and her mother, Adela, sat on a park
bench to rest after shopping ahead of
the Shavuot holiday. Her mother said
she felt a chill, so Friedman returned
to their home nearby to pick up a
sweater. On the way, Friedman suf-
fered fatal injuries from a Kassam
rocket.
"Shirel and I sat outside every
day," Adela said. "We were the best of
friends. She was a wonderful daugh-
ter."
The rocket that killed Friedman was
one of several that fell not far from the
shopping strip in the center of town.
At the same time, a group of the town's
businesspeople were meeting to dis-
cuss how to best cope with the latest
round of Kassam fire that had hit the
city a few days before.
Thousands of residents of Sderot
poured out of the city last week seek-
ing a respite from the rockets. Schools
were closed temporarily. Many resi-
dents returned this week. About 800
students out of some 3,000 came to
school on Monday.
At one school, Israel Radio reported,
none of the teachers showed up.
Meanwhile, 11th- and 12th-graders
were bused to nearby towns to prepare
for their matriculation exams.
The Education Ministry on Sunday
rejected a request by Sderot Mayor Eli
Moyal to end the school year early,
saying it would cause more harm than
good.
Angry Sderot residents have said the
government has not done enough to
fortify buildings against rocket attacks.
Buildings reinforced against attacks in
the past two years reportedly are no
longer safe because the Palestinians
are making rockets with twice the
amount of explosives.
Yossi Kishk, a close friend of Oz,
told the daily Ma'ariv that Oz was
not afraid of the Kassam rockets:'
but his relatives were. Recently, they
urged Oz to at least ask for a raise to
continue taking the risk of traveling
to Sderot.
"Now we understand that such a
raise would not have helped:' Kishk
said. "He just shouldn't have gone
there."