Principal in trouble after expressing relief ‘only’ Arab killed by Gaza rocket

The Education Ministry has summoned the principal of a school in the Gaza Strip border area for a hearing. He had expressed relief that only Arabs were killed during a recent flareup of violence with Gaza.

The principal posted a message to a WhatsApp group for teachers at the school saying “Thank God there are no deaths on our side. A real miracle. Yesterday’s barrage could’ve killed many more, God forbid,” Hadashot television news reported Monday. The report did not name him.

Mahmoud Abu Asabeh, 48, from Halhul, a town near Hebron, was the only fatality on the Israeli side last week, as hundreds of rockets were fired at communities near the Gaza border.

Abu Asabeh was found dead under rubble after a rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists struck an apartment building in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on November 12. Another woman in the same apartment was seriously injured, and a second woman in the building was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The message was originally reported by Hadashot last week. On Monday, the ministry said in a statement that “The Education Ministry regrets the remarks by the principal and stresses that these kind of statements have no place in a civilized society and certainly not in the education system.”

Parents at the Maagalim school in the Sdot Negev region also condemned the comment and published a statement distancing themselves from it, saying they “reject the principal’s unfortunate comments. The Maagalim school champions equality and distances itself from racist comments.”

After the principal’s comment was reported in media, she expressed her “deep apology” for the incident, saying she had not meant to offend anyone and mourns fatalities in the conflict regardless of their ethnicity, Hadashot reported.

Abu Asabeh was the first civilian to be killed in Israel during the sharp uptick in cross-border violence. He left behind a wife, two daughters and three sons including one studying in Russia at the Palestinian Authority’s expense.

After an Israeli operation that went awry in Gaza on November, which left one Israeli soldier and seven Palestinian fighters dead, terrorist groups in the coastal enclave shot off hundreds of rockets and projectiles at Israel.

In total, Gaza terrorists fired over 460 rockets and projectiles at Israel during a 24-hour period, drawing retaliatory airstrikes from Israel. The violence ended with a ceasefire — apparently mediated by Egypt — between Israel and Hamas.