Two Hamas terrorists were eliminated in a morning air strike near Gaza City. The pair was preparing to launch Kassam rockets for another attack on southern Israel.
A second strike later in the day destroyed a car carrying Kassam rocket launchers. A bystander was reported hit and a second car overturned as IAF pilots fired at the terrorist vehicle.
In an unrelated incident, an Islamic Jihad terrorist died around noon following an explosion in his house, apparently a "work accident". Islamic Jihad blamed Israel for the death, but Palestinian Authority (PA) firefighters said that the blast originated in his house.
More than 20 homemade rockets were fired at southern Israel on Sunday. Hamas claimed responsibility for most of them. The Negev town of Sderot has taken the brunt of the attacks, terrorizing the community and traumatizing its residents. The mayor ordered the schools closed on Sunday morning to protect the children, and told parents to keep their children indoors due to the barrage.
Rockets landed in Sderot near a children’s kindergarten, a public housing unit for low-income immigrants and next to Sapir College near Sderot, critically injuring 60-year-old Yonatan Engel, a maintenance worker at Shaare HaNegev elementary school.
Several others were wounded during the day, and two were treated for shock. After his visit with Engel at the intensive care unit at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told reporters, “No organization, no status will serve as cover” for anyone involved in terror attacks.
A teacher who lives in the beleaguered city told Channel 2 TV News that “everything can change from minute to minute,” with no one feeling safe. Yael Tayari told listeners that she sat with her children Sunday morning after the Red Dawn alert system went off, “and prayed the Kassams would land far from us in some open area”. The alert system allows for a 30-second warning before a Kassam rocket lands after being launched, but does not indicate where it will go.
Tayari said the government needed to understand that residents in Sderot are on the front lines of a battleground. “You have to relate to this area as a battlefield – and there should be soldiers in a battlefield….We’re fighting for our lives,” she said.
By Sunday evening, residents were protesting outside the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who lives in Sderot. Some began a hunger strike as well.
Earlier in the day, Peretz rejected a recommendation by IDF top brass to launch a massive military strike against the PA terror groups in Gaza. Peretz gave a green light, however, for the IDF to plan attacks to eliminate the official Hamas leadership. The Defense Minister said he holds Hamas directly responsible for the tens of rockets that rained down upon Israeli citizens over the weekend in the Negev.
Police Chief Moshe Karadi issued a state of alert in the face of some 90 warnings of terror attacks to avenge the deaths of seven family members, including three children, who died in an apparent attack on a Gaza beach on Friday.
It is not clear how the incident took place. Initial reports placed the blame at Israel’s doorstep, saying IDF artillery fired the shells that killed the family. Later reports, however, indicated it was unlikely, as the IDF gunfire was aimed in a different direction and had stopped 15 minutes before the explosion took place.
Further investigation showed that naval and air forces had not been involved, which leaves the possibility of either a terrorist work accident involving preparation of an unstable explosion or a missile that originated in the Gaza Strip.
More than 60 rockets have been fired at southern Israel since Friday night, when Hamas called off a truce with Israel that has been in effect since February 2005.
“We have decided to make Sderot a ghost town,” said a Hamas terrorist who gave his name as Abu Ubeideh. “We are not going to stop launching our rockets until they leave.”
A second strike later in the day destroyed a car carrying Kassam rocket launchers. A bystander was reported hit and a second car overturned as IAF pilots fired at the terrorist vehicle.
In an unrelated incident, an Islamic Jihad terrorist died around noon following an explosion in his house, apparently a "work accident". Islamic Jihad blamed Israel for the death, but Palestinian Authority (PA) firefighters said that the blast originated in his house.
More than 20 homemade rockets were fired at southern Israel on Sunday. Hamas claimed responsibility for most of them. The Negev town of Sderot has taken the brunt of the attacks, terrorizing the community and traumatizing its residents. The mayor ordered the schools closed on Sunday morning to protect the children, and told parents to keep their children indoors due to the barrage.
Rockets landed in Sderot near a children’s kindergarten, a public housing unit for low-income immigrants and next to Sapir College near Sderot, critically injuring 60-year-old Yonatan Engel, a maintenance worker at Shaare HaNegev elementary school.
Several others were wounded during the day, and two were treated for shock. After his visit with Engel at the intensive care unit at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told reporters, “No organization, no status will serve as cover” for anyone involved in terror attacks.
A teacher who lives in the beleaguered city told Channel 2 TV News that “everything can change from minute to minute,” with no one feeling safe. Yael Tayari told listeners that she sat with her children Sunday morning after the Red Dawn alert system went off, “and prayed the Kassams would land far from us in some open area”. The alert system allows for a 30-second warning before a Kassam rocket lands after being launched, but does not indicate where it will go.
Tayari said the government needed to understand that residents in Sderot are on the front lines of a battleground. “You have to relate to this area as a battlefield – and there should be soldiers in a battlefield….We’re fighting for our lives,” she said.
By Sunday evening, residents were protesting outside the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who lives in Sderot. Some began a hunger strike as well.
Earlier in the day, Peretz rejected a recommendation by IDF top brass to launch a massive military strike against the PA terror groups in Gaza. Peretz gave a green light, however, for the IDF to plan attacks to eliminate the official Hamas leadership. The Defense Minister said he holds Hamas directly responsible for the tens of rockets that rained down upon Israeli citizens over the weekend in the Negev.
Police Chief Moshe Karadi issued a state of alert in the face of some 90 warnings of terror attacks to avenge the deaths of seven family members, including three children, who died in an apparent attack on a Gaza beach on Friday.
It is not clear how the incident took place. Initial reports placed the blame at Israel’s doorstep, saying IDF artillery fired the shells that killed the family. Later reports, however, indicated it was unlikely, as the IDF gunfire was aimed in a different direction and had stopped 15 minutes before the explosion took place.
Further investigation showed that naval and air forces had not been involved, which leaves the possibility of either a terrorist work accident involving preparation of an unstable explosion or a missile that originated in the Gaza Strip.
More than 60 rockets have been fired at southern Israel since Friday night, when Hamas called off a truce with Israel that has been in effect since February 2005.
“We have decided to make Sderot a ghost town,” said a Hamas terrorist who gave his name as Abu Ubeideh. “We are not going to stop launching our rockets until they leave.”