The children who fled Putin’s missiles in Ukraine… only to face rockets in Israel: Rabbi posts heartbreaking images of his grandchildren hiding from Russian AND Hamas attacks

A Ukrainian Rabbi has posted heartbreaking photos taken 19 months apart showing his young grandchildren hiding from Russian and Hamas attacks.

He explained that the children had fled to Israel to escape Vladimir Putin’s missiles being launched against civilian targets in Ukraine, only to be caught up in the ongoing conflict in Israel that erupted when Hamas launched an attack on Saturday.

Moshe Azman, the chief rabbi of Ukraine who posted the images on Wednesday, said the photos showed “shared pain and struggle” in “two corners of the world”.

In the first photo, her three grandchildren were seen in a tiny room, the floor mostly taken up by two mattresses and a cot for the youngest child.

The second showed a similar scene: another small room, albeit with slightly more belongings, this time with at least five children lying on mattresses and in a cot.

“In the first photo, my grandchildren are hiding from the rockets of Russian terrorists in the Kyiv region, in the first days of the terrible invasion of Ukraine,” Azman wrote, sharing the photos with his 20,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter ) shared.

“Later we evacuated them to Israel and Europe along with thousands of people.”

‘In the second photo, the same people, but hiding from the rockets of terrorists from Hamas. Two different corners of the world, but such shared pain and struggle.

He added: ‘It breaks my heart to see these faces, but I believe that the light of truth and faith will see us through these trials.

“I pray to the Almighty, that he may rain down his wrath and anger on all those involved in the terror of the civilian population!”

Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since then, his military has launched thousands of rockets against Ukraine, hitting countless civilian sites and killing thousands of innocent people.

Moscow’s forces have also been accused of committing heinous war crimes, including the kidnapping, torture, rape and murder of Ukrainian people.

The actions of Hamas terrorists on Saturday were similarly barbaric, with the terrorists deliberately targeting civilians of all ages.

Hundreds of Hamas militants attacked Israel starting around 6:30 a.m., the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, in an attack that came 50 years and a day after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The Iran-backed Islamists fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel and used explosives and bulldozers to breach the security fence around the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Using motorcycles, pickup trucks, motorized gliders and speedboats, the militants flocked to Israel and targeted cities such as Ashkelon, Ofakim and Sderot.

The gunmen opened fire on hundreds of young Israelis and foreigners at a music festival near Kibbutz Reim, near Gaza. About 270 people died on the site alone.

Hamas fighters also walked through towns and cities, including small kibbutz communities, killing people in their homes and cars.

They also took about 150 hostages, Israel said. They include at least 11 Thais, two Mexicans and an unknown number of Americans and Germans.

So far, Israel says 1,200 innocent people have been found to have been killed.

Reports on the ground said that babies were found decapitated and had their throats cut, while some people were found dead with their hands tied behind their backs.

The death toll in the conflict will continue to rise as more bodies are found in Israel, and as Israel’s military continues to bombard the Gaza Strip, where more than 1,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed so far, including children.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday ordered a “total siege” of Gaza, meaning “no electricity, no food, no water, no gas,” in a move seen by the United Nations as a possible violation of be termed international law.

The army massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armor near Gaza and called up 300,000 reservists for a campaign it called ‘Swords of Iron’.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that his country’s military campaign was only the beginning of a sustained war, vowing to reduce Hamas hideouts in Gaza ‘to rubble’ – a threat that sent a chill through the residents of the enclave will send.

Despite the actions of his soldiers in Ukraine, Putin said today that “women, children and the elderly” should be spared in the Israel-Hamas war.

Russian soldiers showed little regard for the lives of any of these groups.

“We must strive to reduce or minimize civilian casualties to zero,” he said, referring to Palestine and Israel. ‘Women, children, the elderly.

‘If men decide to fight among themselves, let them fight among themselves.

‘Children, women, leave them alone. That goes for both sides.’

According to the OHCHRUN human rights organization, there have been more than 27,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24, 2022 (9,614 killed and 17,535 injured) as a result of Putin’s invasion.

Putin also spoke on Wednesday, saying the Israeli-Palestinian war was rooted in the failure to create a Palestinian state and failed mediation efforts by the US.

Speaking at an international energy forum in Moscow, Putin accused Washington of focusing mainly on trying to create material incentives for the Palestinians, while failing to help create a Palestinian state.

Putin stressed the need to find a settlement quickly – warning that the conflict could spiral out of control, with “serious consequences”.