May 21, 2007 - Shirel Friedman, 32, of Sderot was killed when a Kassam rocket scored a direct hit on a parked car near the town's shopping center.
Shirel and her mother, Adela, were out for a walk, doing some shopping for the Shavuot holiday, and sat down on a park bench to rest. Adela said she felt cold, and Shirel went to get her a sweater from their home nearby. She was fatally wounded in a direct hit by a Kassam rocket and was pronounced dead on arrival at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon after suffering severe injuries to her chest and stomach.
The rocket, one of a barrage of five aimed at the western Negev, slammed into the commercial shopping area in the center of town shortly before 8:00 p.m. while business owners were meeting to discuss the situation. Most businesses were closed as a result, minimizing what might otherwise have become a mammoth disaster.
Adela related: "Shirel and I sat outside every day. We were the best of friends. She was a wonderful daughter." Adela participates in the government welfare-for-work Wisconsin plan. Shirel, described by neighbors as a pleasant, active women, often accompanied her mother to work.
Shirel Friedman was buried in Sderot. She is survived by her now divorced parents, Israel and Adela, and two older brothers, Ron and Itzik.