Survival is due to 'miracles,' says family in central Israel whose home was hit by rocket

(JNS)—Daniel Wolf, whose home was hit by a long-range missile from Gaza on Monday, said although his family home was destroyed in the attack, “a lot of miracles happened” that ultimately spared the family from death.

“We are in shock, but the most important thing is that we are all OK,” Daniel Wolf told Channel 13 from the hospital. “It was traumatic. After the explosion, there was silence, dust and screaming. Destruction everywhere.”

The Wolfs, who live in Mishmeret north of Tel Aviv, faintly heard the siren just after 5 a.m.

“When I heard the siren, I ran and grabbed my oldest daughter, and then I got my wife and my younger daughter and dashed them to the shelter,” he said. “My mother was in between the shelter and the kitchen when we heard an enormous explosion followed by silence... it was terrible.”

Wolf said his father and sister were standing in the front yard when the rocket hit, and miraculously were not seriously injured.

“There were a lot of miracles that happened,” he said.

According to Wolf, his mother and daughters, who were injured, are expected to make a full recovery. Two family dogs were killed.

Daniel said that normally, he would have been in bed. However, the night before the attack, he happened to have fallen asleep on the couch, a room with better acoustics than his bedroom, which enabled him to hear the siren.

He immediately woke up and roused his wife, parents and daughters, grabbing the girls and racing with his wife to the safe room in their home.

Daniel’s mother, Susan, didn’t make it to the safe room in time and suffered the most serious injuries in the family.

“I nearly lost my family,” said father and immigrant from Great Britain, Robert Wolf, standing outside the remains of the destroyed home, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post. “If we had not gotten to the bomb shelter in time, I would now be burying all my family.”

“That is two grandchildren, one 5 months old, one 2 years old. That would be my third child with his wife, my wife, myself and my youngest daughter. They would all have been dead if we didn’t do what we had been supposed to do.”

Robert Wolf left the house to wake another daughter in a separate apartment unit, and the two were in the yard on their way to the safe room when the rocket hit.

The rocket traveled 60 miles from southern Gaza—the farthest reaching attack since the 2014 Gaza war.

The family was evacuated to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba. Susan Wolf was transferred to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah in moderate condition.

The force of the blast was so massive that it damaged several houses in the vicinity, blowing out the windows in the house across the street and cutting the gas line. Yet in another miracle, no explosions resulted.