One of five new Negev towns to be named after child from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the final civilian casualty of 2014 Hamas war
Over a year after Daniel Tragerman was killed by mortar fire during the 2014 Gaza war, a new town in southern Israel is to be named in his memory.
Next week the government is expected to approve the building of five new towns in the Negev region, including one to be named “Daniel” after the 4-year-old victim of a mortar shell explosion, who was killed days before a ceasefire was signed ending the 50-day conflict.
The new town of “Daniel” will be in Regional Council of Merchavim, where Daniel’s mother Gila Tragerman served as spokesman during the 2014 conflict, a Channel 2 TV report said.
Daniel was killed when a mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip exploded outside the family’s home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Sha’ar Hanegev Region on August 22, 2104. The family – his parents and siblings – were all at home at the time, but he failed to make it into the home’s safe room in time and was killed by shrapnel from the explosion.
An Israeli army spokesperson said the fatal shell was fired from near a school used as a shelter for Palestinian refugees. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Tragerman family had been planning to take refuge away from their kibbutz home on the day Daniel was killed. They had left during the first three weeks of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, but returned nearly a week before Daniel’s death after security officials told residents it would be safe.
Daniel was the seventh and last Israeli civilian to be killed during the war.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
