An Iranian missile struck the ALEH rehabilitation center in the Pardes Katz neighborhood of Bnei Brak for severely disabled children and teens in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, collapsing parts of the building and destroying therapy rooms and equipment. Tragically, Avraham Cohen, H’yd, 80, who lived in a neighboring building, was killed by the blast, and 21 people were injured. At the same time, it was an incredible neis that more people weren’t killed. Although the ALEH campus has a public bomb shelter, it was locked that night, and nearby residents turned to other bomb shelters, saving them from the building collapse. Additionally, ALEH is located between tall residential buildings with hundreds of residents. If the missile had fallen just a bit to the left or the right, there could have been hundreds of casualties, chalilah. In the same strike, the Mishkenot Shimon shul suffered severe damage. The shul’s gabbai, Shmuel Gumbo, spoke with Kan Moreshet on Monday morning. “The missile hit ALEH, and the shul, one of the oldest in Pardes Katz, is located right behind it. With Siyata Dishmaya, with great nissim—the strike was half an hour before Kollel begins, which starts at a quarter to five, there was almost no one there. The ceiling collapsed, the windows shattered, and spotlights fell—but Baruch Hashem, the Sifrei Kodesh on the shelves are standing in straight rows. Not one sefer fell. Nor did the Aron Kodesh. Nothing was damaged—only the structure itself was severely damaged.” At this stage, the shul cannot be used. Gumbo said, “We are trying to communicate with professionals about how we can get the place back to activity as quickly as possible. If anyone wants to be a partner in this great thing, you are very welcome. There is a real need for financial help.” He added that the Sifrei Torah were transferred to another shul. “As the gabbai for a decade, the images of the shul’s destruction break my heart. Not only me but all the mispallelim. Everyone comes in and cries. It’s very hard to see. But along with the pain, there is a tremendous sense of gratitude for the neis—that it happened just before the mispallelim arrived, and there were no casualties. It’s a huge neis.” He repeated that the missile hit only minutes before mispallelim began arriving. “If people had been there, chas v’chalilah, it could have ended very badly. All the windows shattered, and the ceiling fell. It is also a lesson—how important it is to listen to the instructions and enter protected spaces.” “We saw nissim. The missile fell on a low structure between huge buildings with hundreds of residents—and nothing happened to anyone. It’s really Chasdei Shamayim.” In conclusion, Gumbo conveyed a message of pain intertwined with gratitude: “We are, of course, very saddened by the murder of eight people in the missile attack. But in the midst of sorrow, we must also give thanks. Every such missile—when you see the damage—it is a neis that hundreds weren’t killed. It can’t be taken for granted. We see Hashem’s good hand that has mercy on us.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
