By, Anshel Pfeffer
1 min read
ByAnshel Pfeffer, Anshel Pfeffer
Daniel Viflic, the 16-year-old Yeshiva student who was critically wounded in the missile attack on a school bus two weeks ago, passed away on Sunday after spending ten days in a coma.
The missile was launched by the military wing of Hamas from within the Gaza Strip and hit a bus that had just dropped off dozens of school children at nearby Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
When the missile struck, only Viflic and the bus driver, who was moderately wounded, were in the vehicle. In retaliation, the IDF attacked 50 Hamas targets in the Strip, killing over 20 Palestinians, almost all of them Hamas fighters. Hamas launched 130 rockets and mortar bombs before an unofficial ceasefire was arranged.
Viflic, a student at the Heichal Hatorah Yeshiva, near his home in Bet Shemesh, had been visiting his grandmother at a nearby kibbutz when the driver offered hima ride.
He was treated on the spot by paramedics and then airlifted to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva but he never regained consciousness. He was brought to rest in Bet Shemesh cemetery on Sunday night.
Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a statement saying: "The tragedy of his death is brought home all the more in that it occurs on the eve of Passover, normally a time of celebration for Jewish families all over the world. I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to Daniel's family. And I reiterate my utter abhorrence of the cowardly attack which cost him his life, and my call for an end to all such attacks on innocent civilians".