Neighbor says Rishon Lezion woman killed by rocket didn’t have time to reach shelter

Abba Cohen, a neighbor of the woman killed by a rocket strike at the entrance to her house in Rishon Lezion on Tuesday, says she simply didn’t have time to reach her bomb shelter.

“She did not make it to the protected area,” he tells Army Radio. “To enter the protected space, you have to leave the house, go through the parking lot and go down the stairs. But the rocket fell right on the parking lot. It’s incomprehensible.”

On Tuesday evening, Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich said the woman’s death should serve as an example of the importance of following Home Front instructions when sirens sound.

“It is important that everyone hears and understands that it could have ended differently,” Kinstlich said. “If she had listened to the instructions and entered the protected space, we would not have been in this situation.”