The many families of soldiers injured in Monday night's Qassam attack on an IDF military base near Zikim has been flocking to the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon since the early morning hours.
| Rocket Attack |
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| 67 wounded in Qassam attack / Hanan Greenberg |
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(Video) Rocket launched from northern Gaza lands in western Negev military base, injures dozens of soldiers, the largest number of casualties from a Qassam attack |
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The IDF chief medical officer in the Southern Command said at noon that the soldier who sustained the gravest injuries from the Qassam attack on the Zikim military base is out of surgery and his condition is stable.
Col. Dr. Carmi Bartal said that while most of the soldiers wounded in the attack suffered shrapnel injuries, the seriously wounded soldiers also suffer from trauma to their head, chest and abdomen.
Most of the injured were already released from hospital.
The Wolfus family from Kiryat Ono sat at the bedside of their son, whose leg was amputated as a result of the strike. He was scheduled to complete his basic training Tuesday and then be transferred to the IDF orchestra, where he was slated to serve as a trumpeter.
"A social worker called us this morning and said that our son was wounded and lost a leg," his mother told Ynet. "We got here straight away. This is a nightmare beyond comprehension. He understands what had happened, he was conscious the entire time. It's not going to be easy, but we'll help him recover."
The father, Shuki added, "This could have been prevented. All along it was clear that the place was not fortified. Why should soldiers be placed at a base without fortification?"
Amnon Wolf from Herzliya, whose son was also hospitalized, described how he learned of the attack: "At four in the morning my son called to tell us he's been injured. We were in the hospital within an hour… This makes you wonder why they put a basic training base in such a location… what's the point in building a recruits training base without any protection in such a place?"
The IDF said that "there were no plans to make groundbreaking changes" at the base following the attack. "Fortification works have been carried out and there are plans to expand them that may be speeded up, but nothing more than that," an army official explained.
According to the official, the base has undergone a comprehensive fortification plan in the past two years that included providing the troops with helmets and bullet-proof vests and placing hollow concrete blocs across the base, to be used as sheltered areas during attacks.
Hanan Greenberg contributed to the report
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