The bereaved parents of four year-old Daniel Tregerman, hy"d, who was killed by a mortar shell fired on their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz last month, have penned a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to protest the UN's upcoming resolution against Israel's conduct during its self-defense operation in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge.
Gila began by telling her story, putting a human face on the terror from constant rocket and mortar shell fire on Gaza Belt residents over the past 14 years.
Dear Sir,
My name is Gila, I am an Israeli citizen, and I am a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the border with Gaza.
A week ago, we lost our elder son, Daniel, 4.5 yrs old, who was killed by a mortar shell, fired from Gaza into Israel deliberately.
I address you after your announcement to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to establish an international investigation committee to investigate "Israel's crime" in the recent fighting in Gaza.
About us: Doron and I were married five years ago and we have three amazing kids: Daniel 4.5 yrs, Yoval 3.5 yrs and Uri 4 months old. We were a happy family. We lived in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza, and found ourselves constantly debating whether not to abandon Nahal Oz and move to another location, quieter, safer, far from rocket fire from Gaza, and far away from the alarms.
Then came the threat of terrorist tunnels, which Hamas members dug from Gaza to Israel under our home to hurt us. At night we heard noises and voices digging beneath us. Thus, in the last six months our children slept with the window closed and locked. We were afraid that they will be kidnapped from us.
Can you imagine our life, Mr. Secretary-General? How do you live in constant fear of mortar shell and terrorists emerging from tunnels?
Gila then described exactly what happened that fateful Friday, in chilling detail.
Then, last Friday [August 22], Daniel was killed. All the precautions that we had taken, failed. Daniel, 4.5 yrs old, was killed in our house, while playing with Yoval in a tent built indoors and not outside, because it's dangerous. He was killed from a mortar shell that was shot by terrorists from Gaza, he died in our hands. Daniel died in front of his little sister and his best friend Yoval, 3.5 years old; he died in front of Uri, only four months old and right before our eyes, his mother and father.
We failed. We couldn't protect our beautiful and talented baby. Daniel was killed from a mortar shell that was fired by Hamas members from an elementary school for boys in Gaza City. It wasn't a stray shell. It wasn't accidental death. From that school terrorists fired deliberately to the kibbutz to murder civilians — children, women, old people. This time they also achieved the goal. Daniel was killed almost immediately. Daniel's father, Doron, covered him with a blanket while crying bitterly and we escaped from home with two small children, leaving our precious son behind, in order to protect them from bombings who continued to explode around the house. Yoval, Daniel's sister saw the terrifying sight and understood that something terrible happened. It is unbearable to watch that little child staring at the wall, in overwhelming silence with teardrops from her eyes.
The bereaved parents then took Ban to task over the UN's assumption that Israel was guilty of "war crimes" during the operation, declaring that Hamas - not Israel - should be prosecuted for its crimes against Gazans.
The vilification of the Jewish state by the UN and its various organizations - which has then trickled down into most mainstream media outlets - has also contributed to a worldwide spike in anti-Semitism.
This week, while the "shiv'ah"(Jewish ritual of mourning) at Doron's parents home, we heard of your decision to appoint an international investigation Committee to investigate "Israel's crime" in the recent fighting in Gaza. You informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu half an hour after our Daniel was killed, perhaps while he was lying dead in our living room, covered in a blanket.
The investigation Committee will examine the "crimes of Israel" during the fighting. The investigation Committee is not asked to investigate how terrorists shoot out of U.N buildings and schools.
The Committee is not asked to investigate how inside buildings of the United Nations and in hospitals in Gaza, terrorist infrastructure flourishes and is maintained over time, or how, from these places, terrorists set out on activity aimed against innocent people.
It wouldn't investigate how Hamas is abusing the Palestinian people, and how its members impose on residents of Gaza, even on children, the digging of tunnels aimed only for terrorism against Israel.
It wouldn't investigate how after these excavations carried out under duress and in slave-like conditions, the Hamas murdered the diggers, even the children, just to be sure they won't be able to pass information to Israel.
Why are you silent? Does your silence indicate consent with the abuse of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people?
The answers to these questions will remain unknown.
How are you and the U.N not seeing the links that make up the global terrorism picture?
The terrorists units, fully equipped and full of hatred that attacked us in our homes, are the same units that kidnapped 43 UN observers in Syria; They are the same units that decapitated innocent people in Syria and Iraq; those units crashed aircraft into crowded buildings in 2001 in New York; those units threaten the essence of democratic life, and life itself, in Europe, in the United States and anywhere on the planet.
"We do not seek the people responsible for our Daniel's death," she concluded. "We only wish your response and your voice against this crime and the crime Hamas committed against their own people."