A barrage of thirteen rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit again southern Israel overnight.
Three residential buildings in the town of Sderot were hit by the rockets, two sustaining damage. The third, a house hosting a children’s summer programme suffered a direct hit, but the rocket failed to explode, avoiding any casualties. In addition, several cars were damaged and there were power cuts in some parts of the town.
In total, at least twenty rockets have landed in southern Israel since midnight.
Three landed in open areas in the Shar Hanegev region and nine in the nearby Eshkol region. Two rockets, one heading for Ashkelon and the other for Netivot, were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
In response to the salvo, the Israeli Air Force last night launched strikes on fifteen rocket launch sites and storage facilities in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian reports say that ten people were injured in the operation.
During the past two weeks, rockets have been fired at Israel on an almost daily basis from the Gaza Strip, which has been administered by Hamas since 2007.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel. Over 3.5 million Israelis are currently living under threat of rocket attacks.
During this period, 15 people have been killed and 1500 injured, according to Noam Bedin, Director of the Sderot Media Center. ‘’This town is probably the sole in the world under permanent rocket fire since the last ten years,’’ he told last week a group of European journalists visiting Israel as part of a press trip organized by Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA).
‘’Every single person in Sderot has been experiencing the rocket fire,” Bedin said as he showed the European reporters the 20 types of Gaza rockets that are displayed at the police station as a ‘’rocket museum’’: Qassam, Grad, Al Qaeda rockets,….
7,000 Sderot residents who had left the city over he years because of the rockets have come back and new factories and housing units are been built. The population is made up of Israelis of North African, Ethiopian and even Northeast Indian origin.
Over 3.5 million Israelis are currently living under threat of rocket attacks.
Although Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense system stops some of the attacks, most rockets are capable of reaching Israel’s biggest southern cities. More than half a million Israelis have less than 60 seconds to find shelter after a rocket is launched from Gaza into Israel. Sderot is too close from the Gaza border (one kilometer) to allow the Iron Dome system to intercept rockets fired into the city.
Every single house in the city has a bomb shelter where residents have to run when a Code Red siren is sounding. Half a billion shekels have been dedicated by the government to build these shelters.
"The city's residents are not deterred by the heinous and cowardly actions of terrorists who are firing rockets from Gaza towards civilian populations," Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said.
‘’97 % of all Gaza rockets are fired from populated sites in the Strip, including from an hospital,’’ stressed Noam Bedein.
Although Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense system stops some of the attacks, most rockets are capable of reaching Israel’s biggest southern cities. More than half a million Israelis have less than 60 seconds to find shelter after a rocket is launched from Gaza into Israel.