Mordechai Yosepov

June 28, 2004 - Mordechai Yosepov, 49, and Afik Zahavi, four, were killed at 8:15 a.m., when a Kassam rocket fired by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip struck near a nursery school in the northern Negev town of Sderot.

The boy's mother was critically wounded and 10 other Sderot residents were lightly hurt. These were the first fatalities in scores of Kassam attacks over the past three and a half years. Of four Kassams fired at Sderot that mornng, three hit harmlessly.

Yosepov was sitting on a bench near the Lilach nursery school, which two of his grandchildren attend, when the rocket struck.

Born in Uzbekistan, Yosepov made aliya in 1993. A tailor by profession, he had difficulty finding work in Sderot and was on his way to the Employment Service when he was killed.

"He was a good and quiet man, pleasant and a devoted father," a relative said at his funeral. Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal and Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky read eulogies for him.

Mordechai Yosepov is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, and five grandchildren. He was buried in the Sderot Cemetery.