‘Netanyahu does not know how to end this’: Weary Israelis lose patience over Gaza attacks

'Right now Netanyahu has a policy of divide and rule with the Palestinians, he doesn’t want peace talks,' says one local

The British-Israeli grandfather whose home was obliterated by a rocket from Gaza on Monday morning said that if his son had not fallen asleep on the sofa the entire family would have been killed.

Robert Wolf, 64, who lived in the UK in the 1970s, told The Independent that his son Daniel, 30, had been shaken awake by rocket sirens wailing and ran to alert his family.

Mr Wolf’s wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, the youngest aged just six months, had barely made it to the shelter when the missile struck.

The grandfather, meanwhile, was just metres away from the missile when it landed on his home in Mishmerot, 25km north of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli army said Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, fired the home-made long-range weapon from the southern regions of the Strip, around 120km away.

“I ran out to find my other daughter and stepped outside when there was a huge explosion,” Mr Wolf told The Independent next to the gutted remnants of his home.

Behind him, volunteers, soldiers, and emergency responders picked their way through charred remains of the house, trying to salvage personal belongings from the mounds of rubble.

“I went flying forward, it tore through the roof. I thought for a second I had lost my entire family. If we hadn’t got to the bomb shelter in time I would have been burying all them,” he added.

He said his wife Sue, also a dual national, was still in hospital being treated for shrapnel in the head. The only reason the baby survived was because she was shielded by his daughter-in-law Yael, who was also hospitalised.

The rest of the family was later allowed to go home.

“If Yael hadn’t taken the shrapnel for the baby, the baby wouldn’t be here. It’s a miracle we weren’t all killed,” Mr Wolf added.

The surprise attack so far north of the besieged enclave was the second long-range attack this month and shook Israel just weeks ahead of the general election. It was followed hours later by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which the army said were directed at Hamas positions.

Central rural areas such as Mishmerot have been spared bombardment in the past. Questions were raised over why the Iron Dome, Israel’s powerful missile defence system, was not deployed to stop the assault.

Captain Libby Weiss, a military spokesperson who declined to comment about the Iron Dome deployment, called the attack a “vivid example” of Hamas’s capabilities.

She confirmed that two additional brigades had been sent to the south and reserve soldiers, including those in the air force, were called up in preparation of further action against Hamas in Gaza, speaking ahead of the Israeli strikes.

Many fear the tit-for-tat strikes could see Israel launch a fresh war in Gaza just weeks ahead of the 9 April polls.

Mr Netanyahu, who was in the United States for meetings with US president Donald Trump and was due to address powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC on Tuesday, cut short his visit to hurry home for a cabinet meeting. The country’s prime minister and defence minister promised to “respond forcefully” to the attack.

Many in Mishmerot, including the Wolf family, expressed anger at the country’s leadership, saying they did not want to go to war but blamed the authorities for leaving the country with no other option.

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“We need a proper government. The politicians are just playing games on the backs of us. I paid the real price today and I nearly lost my entire family,” Mr Wolf said.

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“I don’t know what the solution is. I do not want one Jewish or Druze soldier to die in a war for this but it has to stop.”

Residents of the tiny agricultural town were shaken awake by the rocket siren at just past 5am and initially ignored the warning, as attacks this far north are so rare.

“I am 17 years old, I have never heard a siren before so I ignored it,” said Noa, whose family later heard the explosion which destroyed the Wolf family home.

“It’s an incredible shock for everyone here, this is a quiet area – we never thought the rockets would come to our place. We are worried we are not protected,” she added.

Her father, who spent 14 years in the army and voted for Mr Netanyahu in 2009 during his first term in office, said he feared that the prime minister was too distracted by multiple corruption cases to be able to concentrate on the worsening security crisis.

The prime minister is campaigning for a fourth consecutive term in office, under the shadow of possible indictment in three graft cases

“He is not the man he used to be. He is nearly too distracted. No one here wants a war, but something has to be done,” Ibrahim, 67, said.

Another local, Meir Ghelfenstein, 65, said that there was “no choice left” but a military operation even if no one wanted another conflict.

Mr Ghelfenstein, a supporter of Israel’s Labour Party, said the current right-wing government had squandered the last few years since the 2014 war ended, without helping rebuild Gaza, and leaving the 2.2 million strong population with little else to do than fire rockets.

“Netanyahu does not know how to end this. He has taken no action over the last four-and-a-half years since the last war and left people in Gaza with no hope,” he said, standing outside the gutted Wolf home.

“They have nothing to lose and so this happens. We need to give them a solid economy, peace and hope. Right now Netanyahu has a policy of divide and rule with the Palestinians, he doesn’t want peace talks.”