Six-year-old Ido Avigal. Photo: Screenshot

The family of a five-year-old boy killed in a rocket strike in the city of Sderot on Wednesday is struggling to comprehend the tragedy, even as the boy’s mother remains hospitalized and has not been informed of her son’s death.

Assaf Avigal — the father of Ido Avigal, who died from shrapnel wounds after a direct hit on a building in the beleaguered southern town near the Gaza border — told Walla, “A great disaster has fallen upon us.”

“We aren’t digesting that we’re in a situation where parents have to bury their child,” he said. “We hope he will be the last victim.”

“My wife doesn’t know,” Assaf said, “because she’s on a ventilator and anesthetized. I don’t know how to tell her.”

Ido’s uncle Avichai described the rocket strike, which took place at his home, saying, “There was a red alert siren, and we all ran to the protected room. We heard the explosion, and then the shrapnel came through the secure room’s window, and the rocket hit the house next door.”

Gitit Gutara, whose home was struck by the rocket, said that the shrapnel’s ability to pierce the secure window showed “neglect.”

“It doesn’t make sense what happened here,” she said. “We’re shocked. … A child was murdered here, an innocent child.”

Sharon Ben-Shushan, a neighbor who gave first aid to Ido immediately after the strike, said, “I go out the door and hear the apartment owner, Avichai, yelling from downstairs, ‘the boy, the boy.’ We tried to perform resuscitation but we didn’t succeed. It’s difficult for me, extremely difficult.”

Editor’s note: this article has been updated to correct Avigal’s age.