Sderot Missile Diary

This news item was prepared in cooperation with Noam Bedein, head of the regional news service for Sderot and the Western Negev in southern Israel.

The first salvo was fired on Thursday at 7:30 a.m.

Four rockets fell in uninhabited areas within the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council with no casualties or damage, and a fifth rocket fell inside Palestinian territory.

Approximately a half-hour later, nine Kassam rockets were fired at Sderot. One rocket fell on a city road, damaging a car, and two residents suffered from shock. The rest of the rockets fell in uninhabited territory.

Approximately an hour later, three other rockets fell, one of which landed in a residential neighborhood, damaging a sidewalk. A woman was injured in the leg by shrapnel, a 12-year-old girl suffered screeching sounds in her ears and another woman suffered from shock.

The three of them were taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon by Magen David Adom, the Israel equivalent of the Red Cross.

Exactly one hour later, two rockets were fired and fell in an open area near Sderot.

At noon, two rockets fell in Palestinian Authority territory.

After a lull of several hours, one rocket was fired at 6 p.m. and fell inside uninhabited territory in Shaar Hanegev, and the mortar shell fell near the security fence, south of Kissufim.

Then at 9:15 p.m., another rocket was fired, which fell in Palestinian territory. In addition, an armed Palestinian who was spotted by Golani Infantry Brigade troops as he tried to cross the security fence was shot and seriously wounded.

The Sasson family in Sderot, interviewed with Noam Bedein on EURONEWS two weeks ago, suffered a direct hit on their home on Thursday in Sderot. The mother of the family, Shula Sasson, was unconscious at the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon and two of her sons are being treated for shock.

The EURONEWS clip can be viewed at:

http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=mediterraneans&article=455347&lng=1#

Responsibility for the Kassam rocket fire was claimed by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, but not by Hamas.

Meanwhile, the Israeli news media reported details of the Wednesday Israel High Court of Justice session, when Israeli judges lost their patience with their government’s foot-dragging regarding finding a solution to the problem of protection for 800 families of Sderot since the rocket attacks on the city began seven years ago.

Judges Ayala Procaccia, Selim Jubran and Yosef Alon discussed the petition of 30 of the city’s residents to enjoin the government to reinforce 800 homes that have tiled roofs, which are vulnerable to Kassam rockets. The residents’ representative, Attorney Yosef Pinhas Cohen, who also lives in one of those homes, claimed that the government is breaking a clear promise that it gave to the residents of Sderot in the past.

The judges criticized the fact that the government is not giving the matter highest priority and gave it a month, no later than Jan. 15, 2008, to report to the High Court of Justice on the progress of the measures being taken to solve the problem.

“People live in those homes. Much quicker answers need to be found, and at the highest priority,” said the director of the judges’ panel, Judge Ayala Procaccia.

Not willing to wait until Jan. 15, Israeli Russian tycoon Arcadei Gaydamak announced that he was contributing $22million to fortify 600 of these unprotected Sderot homes.

During a tour of the western Negev city last May, when Mr. Gaydamak helped evacuate more than 1,000 residents of Sderot during sustained mortar attacks, he said, “That man (Prime Minister Ehud Olmert), who recently sent hundreds of Israelis to their deaths (in the Second Lebanon War) just to show that he was a leader, has no right to criticize my activity for the people of Sderot. I’m doing what every Jew must do.”

©The Bulletin 2007