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In one of the worst Qassam attacks on Sderot since the cease-fire began, a Palestinian rocket exploded right outside a Sderot supermarket on yesterday evening around 5 p.m. local time. Shrapnel wounded three people, with one man suffering a head wound, according to a MADA spokesperson on scene.
Fire trucks and ambulances lined outside the supermarket as shattered glass littered the entire area. Nine people including three young women were evacuated to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon for severe shock.
The Qassam rocket caused heavy damage to at least 15 cars in the parking lot where it had exploded. The smell of serious gas leaks had Sderot firemen hosing the entire parking lot with water to prevent fire.
Inside the supermarket, known as Victory, wine bottles lay shattered upon the floor, as shoppers made their way outside across puddles of wine and broken glass. Rocket shrapnel caused heavy damage to store merchandise, as the glass windows in the supermarket’s front entrance completely shattered.
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A worker at Sderot Steinmatsky Book Store across the street from the supermarket told said she and her co-worker watched the Qassam rocket fall into the parking lot, about five meters away from the supermarket.
“We saw the sparks and the smoke, as the rocket exploded on impact. It was one of the most terrifying sights, I’ve ever seen,” said the worker, a student at Sapir College, who asked not to be named.
Another Sderot local, Shani, who works as a cashier at the Victory supermarket, heard customers yelling “Tzeva Adom,” and moved away from her cash register seconds before the Qassam rocket hit the parking lot. “The glass exploded everywhere,” Shani said. “If I had been standing at the register, I would have been one of those injured in terror attack.”
Since the cease-fire began on June 19, the Israeli army spokesman has tabulated more than 400 rockets that have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev from Gaza, making the number of rockets fired at Israel during this cease-fire significantly higher than the number fired in the previous Hamas-Israel cease-fire in 2007. To date, over 10,000 Palestinian rockets have been fired at southern Israel since 2001.
Anav Silverman in Sderot contributed to this report.
David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com
