Among the 50 rockets since Friday afternoon was one that landed near an elementary school in the city, wounding one man seriously - his condition has since been changed to "critical" - and sending two women to the hospital to be treated for shock.
Other notable Kassams over the weekend included one that hit the southern industrial zone of Ashkelon, causing damage to a building; one that hit the Sderot College Sunday morning; rockets that smashed into Kibbutz Nachal Oz and near Kibbutz Alumim (from the ruins of the Jewish community of Netzarim), and nearly ten more that were fired Sunday afternoon.
A spokesman for Hamas, which has accepted responsibility for almost all the recent Kassam rockets, said, "We have decided to turn Sderot into a ghost town. We won't stop firing the rockets until they all leave."
Parents in Sderot reacted to the onslaught by closing all schools in the city until further notice, and children from nursery to 8th grade are home. "We refuse to have our children subjected to the danger of these rockets," said Batia Katar, the head of the city's Parents Committee. She said that Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had shown full support for the decision to close down the schools.
"Olmert goes to apologize for a stray Israeli rocket in Gaza," Katar told Army Radio, "if there even was one, but who will apologize to us? Why is he going to Europe when our children are suffering here?" Olmert is set to depart for a diplomatic visit to Europe today.
Ms. Katar further said that she and others have no interest in living in Sderot anymore. "Within a few days, every house here will have a 'For Sale' sign," she said. "We demand that the Sela Administration [which dealt with the relocation of expelled Gush Katif and Northern Shomron residents] open its doors to us and find us new apartments around the country."
Army Radio reported that many irate Sderot residents called in afterwards to protest Katar's willingness to give up. One woman, Kineret Rosenfeld, said in response, "We don't want to leave Sderot, we simply demand that the army and government protect us as in every other place. Our Sages have taught us that whoever has mercy on the cruel, will end up being cruel to the merciful - and we see this coming true here. The government worries about a civilian population that protects and shelters and helps the terrorists, but does nothing to protect us from them."
"I want to know," Kineret continued, "why my five little children who are now home with me have to be frightened of every announcement in the street because they no longer know the difference between the ice cream man and the Red Dawn rocket warning system, with who knows how much permanent damage."
On Friday afternoon, several members of one Arab family were killed on a Gaza beach, in what now appears to have been an internal Palestinian Authority incident.
This did not stop Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials from hurrying to apologize for the incident. Defense Minister Amir Peretz even said that all Israeli artillery fire at Kassam launching cells would be suspended until the army's investigation into the deadly incident was completed.
Some officials have since shown regret for their haste, especially since evidence shows that Israel was not even involved in the attack. See separate article.
Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin was very critical of the fact that Israeli officials had not learned from previous incidents, and did not even raise the possibility that Israel was not responsible for the killings.
Despite the decision not to strafe Kassam launching areas, Israel Air Force aircraft attacked two rocket launching cells today as they were about to fire at Israel. Three terrorists - two of Hamas and one of Islamic Jihad - were killed, and seven were injured.
Other notable Kassams over the weekend included one that hit the southern industrial zone of Ashkelon, causing damage to a building; one that hit the Sderot College Sunday morning; rockets that smashed into Kibbutz Nachal Oz and near Kibbutz Alumim (from the ruins of the Jewish community of Netzarim), and nearly ten more that were fired Sunday afternoon.
A spokesman for Hamas, which has accepted responsibility for almost all the recent Kassam rockets, said, "We have decided to turn Sderot into a ghost town. We won't stop firing the rockets until they all leave."
Parents in Sderot reacted to the onslaught by closing all schools in the city until further notice, and children from nursery to 8th grade are home. "We refuse to have our children subjected to the danger of these rockets," said Batia Katar, the head of the city's Parents Committee. She said that Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had shown full support for the decision to close down the schools.
"Olmert goes to apologize for a stray Israeli rocket in Gaza," Katar told Army Radio, "if there even was one, but who will apologize to us? Why is he going to Europe when our children are suffering here?" Olmert is set to depart for a diplomatic visit to Europe today.
Ms. Katar further said that she and others have no interest in living in Sderot anymore. "Within a few days, every house here will have a 'For Sale' sign," she said. "We demand that the Sela Administration [which dealt with the relocation of expelled Gush Katif and Northern Shomron residents] open its doors to us and find us new apartments around the country."
Army Radio reported that many irate Sderot residents called in afterwards to protest Katar's willingness to give up. One woman, Kineret Rosenfeld, said in response, "We don't want to leave Sderot, we simply demand that the army and government protect us as in every other place. Our Sages have taught us that whoever has mercy on the cruel, will end up being cruel to the merciful - and we see this coming true here. The government worries about a civilian population that protects and shelters and helps the terrorists, but does nothing to protect us from them."
"I want to know," Kineret continued, "why my five little children who are now home with me have to be frightened of every announcement in the street because they no longer know the difference between the ice cream man and the Red Dawn rocket warning system, with who knows how much permanent damage."
On Friday afternoon, several members of one Arab family were killed on a Gaza beach, in what now appears to have been an internal Palestinian Authority incident.
This did not stop Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials from hurrying to apologize for the incident. Defense Minister Amir Peretz even said that all Israeli artillery fire at Kassam launching cells would be suspended until the army's investigation into the deadly incident was completed.
Some officials have since shown regret for their haste, especially since evidence shows that Israel was not even involved in the attack. See separate article.
Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin was very critical of the fact that Israeli officials had not learned from previous incidents, and did not even raise the possibility that Israel was not responsible for the killings.
Despite the decision not to strafe Kassam launching areas, Israel Air Force aircraft attacked two rocket launching cells today as they were about to fire at Israel. Three terrorists - two of Hamas and one of Islamic Jihad - were killed, and seven were injured.