Israel’s Defense Ministry announced on Sunday evening that the Palestinian worker from Gaza who was killed by a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad will be recognized as a terror victim and his family in Gaza will receive compensation from Israel’s National Insurance Institute [Bituch Leumi], Israel Hayom reported.

Abdullah Abu Jaba, a 34-year-old father of six, was killed on Shabbos while working at an agricultural construction site in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. No air raid siren was activated in the area and there was no Iron Dome interception because the IDF’s policy is not to intercept rockets headed for open areas.

The victim’s brother, also a resident of Gaza, was seriously injured, and an Israeli-Bedouin who worked at the site as a security guard, was moderately injured. An IDF investigation revealed that the work at the site was carried out in violation of the directives of the Home Front Command, which allowed only “limited activity” subject to the presence of a protected area nearby. At the time, a bomb shelter for the workers was under construction but had not yet been completed and had no roof.

According to the Yisrael Hayom report, the Victims of Hostile Action (Pensions) Law states that any Israeli citizen or person who legally entered Israel (tourist, foreign worker, Palestinian worker, etc.) and is injured or killed is recognized as a victim of hostilities and is entitled to National Insurance benefits. After Abu Jaba’s death, the Defense Ministry confirmed that Abu Jaba had received one of the 17,500 permits granted to Gazans to work in Israel.

A statement from the National Insurance Institute said: “Just as hundreds of foreign tourists or foreign residents were killed by attacks, rockets, etc. (for example, the Italian citizen who was killed in a ramming attack in Tel Aviv) and are entitled and recognized as victims of terror, the same is true here.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)