Daniel Tragerman’s bereaved family won’t return to kibbutz
'Usually Daniel was the first one to run to the shelter, and this time he froze,' says Gila Tragerman
Crowds of people paid condolences to the Tragerman family on Monday, a day after they buried their 4-year-old son Daniel, killed by Gazan mortar fire on Friday.
Gila Tragerman said in an interview with Army Radio that the family does not intend to return to their home on Nahal Oz, even after the fighting ends.
Tragerman said “it seems we will not return to Nahal Oz — there is no way.
“Now it’s very clear, there are no more question marks and I don’t think there will be,” she said. “It’s not the quiet — it’s the memories.”
On Friday, Daniel Tragerman was killed when a mortar exploded outside their home on the kibbutz, shortly before they were planning on leaving for the center of the country.
The family said they had only three seconds between hearing a siren and seeking shelter, and Daniel, who had been playing in a tent inside the house, was killed by the blast.
He was laid to rest on Sunday at a funeral attended by hundreds, including President Reuven Rivlin.
Speaking to the media, father Doron Tragerman said the blast came after several other projectiles targeted the area.
“The siren startled all of us, it all happened so fast. You straight away know that this time it was not near the border fence or in open spaces, but on the other side of the wall,” he said.
Gila recalled how Daniel, who was well rehearsed at running to the family shelter, for once didn’t act.
“Usually Daniel was the first one to run to the shelter, and this time he froze in place,” she commented.
“We have come through the inferno and left Daniel behind,” said his father.
The mourning parents said they had left the kibbutz for safer ground further away from Gaza during the early days of Operation Protective Edge, but came back during a lull in the fighting because they really wanted to be home.
Three days before the deadly strike, Gazan terrorists breached a several day-old truce with rocket fire, ending ceasefire talks in Egypt and returning both sides to intensive fighting.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid was among those who came to console the Tragermans on Monday.
Lapid said that the Hamas leaders would pay for everything that they are doing to the southern residents, Channel 10 news reported.
“There is something wrong that undermines the world order when you are talking about a family that lost a child,” he said.
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