Schoolboy dies in Israel after bus hit by rocket from Gaza

Monday, April 18, 2011

A sixteen-year-old boy has died in hospital in Be’er Sheva, Israel of wounds he suffered after a bus he was travelling in was hit by a Palestinian missile fired from Gaza.

The bus was travelling near the town of Kibbutz Sa’ad and was nearly empty, having previously dropped off the other children on board. The only people on board were the driver and the student who was killed, Daniel Viflic. The driver was injured by shrapnel.

Viflic was taken to the intensive care unit at the Soroka Medical Center. According to Professor Shaul Sofer, who is the director of the intensive care unit, his condition had been “critical,” and his death wasn’t a surprise because shortly after arrival “his brain stopped functioning.”

However, Sofer explained that “[d]ue to the sensitive nature of the event,” the doctors had “continued treatments despite knowing that he had no chance of recovery.”

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said that the attack on the bus had been unintentional and that they “did not intend to target Israeli school children,” going on to say that the road where the incident occurred sees heavy military traffic.

Viflic’s father, Yitzhak Viflic, said that “Daniel fought but passed away calmly. I am positive he is in a good place now.”