Hamas terrorists, shortly before midnight Sunday, fired the 271st missile since the end of Operation Cast Lead. The Kassam exploded near Sderot, described by a U.S. radio station as "death’s doorstep.”

The rocket exploded in an open area west of the town, and no injuries or damage was reported. The IDF has not retaliated, but previous attacks have prompted a response within two days, usually the bombing of smuggling tunnels, weapons factories and warehouses.

The attack may have been timed as a sendoff for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is on his way to Washington and will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama.

The visit comes in the wake of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ intention to quit in the wake of President Obama’s inability to follow through on his attempt to force Israel to stop construction of all building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

Living in Sderot is like living "on death’s doorstep,” Huntsville, Alabama television station WHNT told its listeners this week. The station's anchorman, Nick Banaszak, spent three weeks in Israel, including the rocket-battered town of Sderot.

The rocket barrage began nine years ago with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War. Following the recent “Goldstone report” by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, accusing Israel of war crimes in the Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign aimed at halting the attacks, the commission was criticized for  remaining silent for nine years while Hamas rockets killed and wounded hundreds of civilians and traumatized thousands of others.

A recent survey from a Jerusalem hospital reveals that approximately half of all Sderot's children aged six and under suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.