Ella Abukasis, 17, of Sderot, who was mortally wounded by a Kassam rocket as she was walking home on Saturday night, died Friday morning. Her funeral was held in Sderot shortly after noon.

Doctors and rabbis spent many hours at Ella’s bedside over the past few days, and performed many tests. Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Halperin, an expert in issues of medical ethics such as determining the time of death, spent hours at Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva, and assured the parents that there was no question or doubt about the determination.

Ella, whose name was changed to Ayala Chaya in the hope of similarly “changing” the Divine decree, was walking with her brother when she heard the public alarm warning of the approach of an impending Kassam rocket. She instinctively jumped to protect her younger brother, 11-year-old Tamir Yaakov, and a piece of shrapnel from the bomb struck her in the head. Hundreds of friends and relatives in Sderot and around the country began non-stop prayers, knowing that only a miracle could save her ­- but the miracle did not happen.

Ella Abukasis became the fifth victim of Kassam rocket attacks in Sderot. Seven months ago, Mordechai Yosifov, 49, and Afik Zahavi, a 3-year-old on his way to nursery, were killed by a Kassam, and this past September, two young cousins Dorit Aniso, 2, and Yuval Abebeh, 4, were killed as they were playing in their yard just as the Sukkot holiday was to begin.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 22nd, 2005 and is filed under hotnews.