Israelis survey damage after a rocket fired by Palestinians militants in Gaza landed in their house in the southern Israeli town of Sderot August 28, 2007. REUTERS/Amir Cohen.
Yesterday, the Palestinians scored a direct hit on Israeli civilians currently undefended by their government:
A Kassam rocket scored a direct hit on a home in Sderot on Tuesday shortly before Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met in Jerusalem.
One man sustained moderate shrapnel wounds to his eye and leg and several bystanders were treated for shock.
The rocket hit the roof of the home over a bathroom shortly after it was vacated.
Eli Sabag said the rocket narrowly missed his family.
"I had just sat down to drink a cup of coffee when I heard the warning siren," he said. "My wife, my son and I went into the bomb shelter and waited for the Kassam to hit. When we opened the door, we saw a smoke mushroom, and we realized that it had fallen on our house."
And who was responsible for an attack on Israeli civilians while Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas went to meet Olmert?
The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack, adding in its statement that the rocket was an Aksa-3, an improved model of the Kassam.
Israel is currently “negotiating” with someone who has failed for more than two-and-a-half years to dismantle a single terrorist organization, who was unable to hold on to his own offices in Gaza (after his forces received two-and-a-half years of American military training), who can’t control his own “military wing” (much less anyone else), and whose powers barely extend (in the words of New York Sun reporter Youssef Ibrahim) “to the porch of his Ramallah residence.”
In the meantime, Israeli citizens are sitting ducks.
Israeli medics wheel a man, wounded by a homemade rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the town of Sderot, into hospital in the port city of Ashkelon, Israel, Tuesday Aug. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Str).
Here is the official report from the Israel Foreign Ministry of the hits in the last week:
- A Kassam rocket launched from the northern GazaStrip landed directly on the bedroom of a house in Sderot (28 August). The residents had heard the alarm and entered their secure room before the rocket struck. A passerby was moderately wounded in the eye by shrapnel, and several were treated for shock.
- A Kassam rocket fired from northern Gaza towards Israelhit a Sderot vehicle (25 August), destroying it completely.
- Eight Kassam rockets landed in Sderot and the Negevarea (23 August). One hit the Timsit family home in Sderot. Family members, who heard the Color Red alarm, were in the secure room when the rocket smashed through the living room’s ceiling, and were not harmed. Two women were treated for anxiety. The Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, claimed responsibility.
- Palestinian terror groups launched a Kassam rocket from northern Gaza(21 August), which landed in a factory near the town of Sderot. No injuries were reported but damage was caused to the factory.
- Palestinians in north Gazafired two Kassams toward Israel(21 August). One rocket struck a vacant Na’amat daycare center in the western Negev city of Sderot, causing slight damage to the building. A woman living nearby suffered from shock as a result of the attack. The daycare center was empty during the August summer holiday. The second Kassam landed near a gas station outside the city.
So in the last week alone: a direct hit on a home, complete destruction of a vehicle, another hit on a home, a hit on a factory, a hit on a daycare center, and a hit near a gas station. No retaliation.