Roni Yihye
February 28, 2008
The death of a 47-year-old Israeli man in a rocket barrage near Sapir College in Sderot echoed among Jews in New Jersey, where two professors from the college recently spoke about life under the threat of Kassam attacks.
Roni Yihye was a father of four and a career soldier studying logistics at the college. He was apparently in a car parked next to the college as a barrage of at least 40 rockets from Gaza struck factories, homes, and Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, in the western Negev on Feb. 27.
Several others were wounded, and many were treated for shock.
Earlier last month two Sapir professors visiting Rutgers University gave a harrowing account of the trauma caused by the unending missile attacks that have plagued the area around Sderot.
The two professors, Dr. Ruthie Eitan, head of the college’s overseas program, and Dr. Uri Bibi, chair of the college’s department of human resource management, were hosted by Rutgers’ School of Social Work in an appearance arranged by the Israeli consulate in New York.
At that time, they spoke of how fortunate Sapir had been that no students or faculty members had been killed there despite having 2,400 missiles hit the campus and the surrounding Sderot area since the Hamas-led government came to power in Gaza in the summer of 2005.
Eitan told reporters last week she was in the parking lot where the missile exploded and witnessed the carnage.
In a phone interview Feb. 28 with New Jersey Jewish News as she returned from Yihye’s funeral, Eitan said classes had resumed at Sapir, although the college closed early to allow students and staff to attend the funeral. The rocket attacks had also resumed with about a dozen hitting in and around the campus that day.
“It seems now they are deliberately targeting the campus,” said Eitan.
She described a frightening scene that took place the day before as she walked to her car in the parking lot where Yihye was killed. A pregnant Bedouin student was thrown to the ground.
“A second Kassam landed behind my car and actually killed a student there,” recalled Eitan. “There were police all around. We asked them to bring a stretcher. All the forces were there. They are unfortunately very experienced and well trained for this type of attack.”
Although a handful of students fainted, the majority remained calm, listened to instructions, and filed in an orderly fashion into bomb shelters, according to Eitan. Classes were canceled for the remainder of the day, but authorities were concerned about letting students leave all at once, so they were evacuated in groups.
“The students were not hysterical, although they were frightened,” said Eitan. “They reacted in a very orderly way.”
She said she was unsure what the fatality would mean for Sapir’s future, adding, “We’ve had a lot of visits from elected officials, but we presume they will soon disappear. But we will hold on together as we try to absorb what happened.”
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