Holocaust Survivor Succumbs to Injuries From Gaza War Rocket Barrage

By Pesach Benson, United With Israel

Naomi Perlman, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, succumbed to wounds from a Hamas rocket attack and died on Sunday in Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital. She was injured when a rocket fired from Gaza directly hit her Ashkelon home in May during the 11-day war.

Perlman’s 32-year-old Indian caregiver, Soumya Santosh was killed instantly in the May 11 barrage which Hamas claimed responsibility for. According to Hamas, it had fired 40 rockets on Ashkelon in hopes of overwhelming Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. Subsequent reports indicated that a technical malfunction in one Iron Dome battery may have been responsible for the deaths.

According to reports, Perlman’s building did not have a bomb shelter.

“If there is anyone who deserves to be called the ultimate survivor it is her,” said her son, Shuki to Israel’s Kan News. “It was nine months of fighting. I did not believe she would survive. She came without a pulse and blood pressure to Barzilai.”

A third Ashkelon woman, Nella Gurevitz, also died in that barrage.

Kan reported that Perlman had been hospitalized several times for treatment for extensive shrapnel injuries to her legs.

With Perlman’s passing, the Israeli death toll from Operation Guardian of the Walls now stands at 12 civilians and one soldier.

Naomi Perlman was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1931. According to Kan, her family managed to escape the Holocaust by traveling to Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Her family moved to Israel in 1950, where she met her husband, Yankele.

Perlman is survived by a son, daughter, eight grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

She was due to be buried in Ashkelon’s Givat Zion Cemetery on Sunday afternoon.