Smoke trails rise as a rocket is launched from the southern Gaza Strip towards Israel on May 4, 2019. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.

An Israeli mother whose child was injured last week when she fell while running for shelter during a rocket attack on Israel’s south recounted the incident to Hebrew media outlets for the first time on Sunday.

Vera Diglov described to Israel’s Channel 13 how after hearing an air raid siren, she slipped on her way to a protected room while holding her three-month-old daughter, and attempted to shield the baby from the impact.

“We have three kids and I didn’t know who to take first,” Diglov recounted. “I grabbed the baby … and we ran down the stairs. I slipped with the girl in my hands; we both fell on our heads.”

“I realized within seconds that I was going to fall forward with the girl,” she said, “and I turned around on my back.”

Diglov’s head injury was superficial, but her daughter was injured much more severely.

“At that moment, I didn’t realize that she had been injured, because I got hit myself and I was dizzy and groggy — even though the girl was crying,” Diglov said.

“We ran to the protected room and I put her in the stroller for a moment because I felt I couldn’t hold her,” she continued. “Then I realized that she had been hit and was crying, and I told my husband to call an ambulance.”

Mother and daughter were both evacuated to Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba, and the child’s condition is said to be improving.

“There is a newborn baby here, and she is already suffering from this trauma that will accompany her for life,” Diglov said.

Tensions in Israel’s south have been rising for days amidst a flurry of rocket attacks from Gaza and explosive balloons sent over the border, followed by IDF retaliation against Hamas positions in the coastal enclave.

The tension spiked over the weekend, with mortars fired at the Eshkol Regional Council on Friday, followed by rocket attacks on the town of Sderot.