Rocket fire results
Rocket fire resultsIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The Gaza Belt town of Sderot was quiet overnight, in the face of a rocket barrage over the Sabbath that killed one man and wounded 16 others in southern Israel.

Residents are going about their daily affairs in the town, which over the years has been battered by thousands of short-range Kassam rockets. Sderot is usually one of the first targets in the rocket attacks launched at Israel by Gaza terrorists.

“They're not worried,” Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Moshe Pizem told Arutz Sheva in an interview Sunday morning. “One can say we are being 'vigilant.' It is important to be aware of your surroundings when you only have 15 seconds to get to safety.”

Sderot is located barely a kilometer (less than a mile) from Gaza, where Palestinian Authority terrorists launched missiles and mortar shells at Israel's southern region every six minutes at dawn on Sunday. At least 39 missiles and mortars were fired from Gaza at Israel over the Sabbath.

Nevertheless, students in the small town will attend classes on Sunday; their school buildings have been fortified against rocket attacks in the past couple of years.

However, 200,000 other children in southern Israel have been ordered to stay home for their own safety - in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Gan Yavne, Netivot, Ofakim and other communities in the area.

Over the Sabbath, 56-year-old Ashkelon resident Moshe Ami was killed while searching for his son during one of the numerous rocket attacks; he was hit by shrapnel from a medium-range Grad Katyusha missile that exploded in his city.

A young girl was among the 16 people who were wounded in the intensive rocket and mortar fire that rained down upon southern Israel. Most sustained shrapnel wounds, or suffered smoke inhalation. A small baby was also among the wounded. Fourteen others were hospitalized for severe anxiety and trauma.