Palestinian Authority terrorists were up bright and early Monday morning firing the first rocket attack of the day at southern <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel before 7:00 a.m.  The Israel Air Force was also up bombing terrorist strongholds in an effort to stop the rocket attacks.

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

By 6:30 a.m., witnesses reported seeing a Kassam rocket flying towards the Mediterranean coastal city of Ashkelon. The rocket appeared to have landed in the industrial zone in the city’s south, they said. Officials have yet to confirm the reports. The second attack came within an hour. That rocket exploded in a kibbutz near Sderot. By 8:00 a.m., another attack sent a pair of PA missiles. One slammed into a neighborhood near SapirCollege in Sderot, the other hit ground in an open field on the outskirts of the town.

 

No injuries have been reported in any of the attacks.

Monday morning air strikes by the IAF meanwhile hit an electrical installation in Gaza, knocking out power for some 50,000 residents. A rocket factory was also hit, killing one worker.

On Sunday night, IAF pilots fired missiles at a terrorist cell in Gaza City, killing eight and wounding 13 other PA Arabs at the home of Hamas legislator Khalil al-Haya, who was not home at the time. The IDF said the Hamas lawmaker was not the target; the strike was aimed at a group of gunmen moving through the neighborhood.  All five of the terrorists were killed, as were three bystanders, said the army spokesman.

The IDF also warned that Hamas is working on a widespread disinformation campaign aimed at demoralizing the Israeli population and arousing international sympathy for its cause, even as it works to murder Israeli civilians.

The government voted Sunday to allow the IDF to target the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in future air strikes in addition to rocket launching crews, an incremental move toward its past policy which enabled the elimination of many local terrorist leaders in Gaza and other PA-controlled territories.

Gaza terrorists fired 15 rockets at the western Negev on Sunday, causing extensive damage to a house in Sderot. A restaurant in Kibbutz Nir-Am burned to the ground after being hit by a Kassam and fields in the kibbutz were set ablaze by another one of the missiles.

 

Ten people were treated for shock in the BarzilaiMedicalCenter. Residents of Sderot held a protest, blocking a major intersection, burning tires, and calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to step down. Sderot residents demand that the Israeli government give the IDF orders to use all of its force to halt the bombardment of their town.

 

Meanwhile, politicians such as Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit, have been sniping at Russian-born Israeli business tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak, who pledged to spend $30 million to fortify more than a thousand residential units in the besieged border town. The politicians say the task of fortifying buildings in Sderot belongs to the government.

 

Terrorists have fired at least 140 rockets and 33 mortar shells at Jewish towns in the western Negev in the past week.