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8-year old Israeli girl seriously hurt, preemies evacuated as rockets fall

With Israel under attack, southern hospital moves emergency operations to underground facility.

By World Israel News Staff

As Israelis in several parts of the country went scurrying for cover on Tuesday to protect themselves from Gaza rocket attacks, an 8-year old girl was reported in serious condition after collapsing as she ran for shelter in the city of Holon, south of Tel Aviv.

The girl had lost consciousness, medics reported. She was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, they said.

She was responding to a siren that sounded in Holon, warning residents that the city was under attack by Palestinian terrorists.

The girl was in an apartment house. Schools were closed in the region as a barrage of rocket attacks struck southern and central Israel on Tuesday, after the Israel Air Force assassinated a leading terrorist from Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip in a targeted strike at around 4 a.m.

In southern Israel, prematurely-born babies were evacuated from the preemie unit at Barzilai Hospital in the coastal city of Ashkelon. To protect against Gazan rockets, Barzilai constructed an underground facility to ensure that emergency care can continue under such conditions.

A far larger facility was built at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, in northern Israel, in case of rocket attacks from terrorists in Lebanon.