Palestinian rocket explodes next to Israeli baby care centre
A Palestinian rocket exploded this morning next to a day-care centre crowded with toddlers in southern Israel, sparking anger and panic in the frequently targeted town of Sderot and bringing warnings of retribution from Israeli leaders.
Terrified mothers rushed to the scene to comfort their screaming babies, schoolchildren ran for cover and angry parents said they wouldn’t send their children back to school until the they get classrooms outside town.
No one was hurt, but the blast and the panic underlined Israel’s ineffectiveness in the face of the primitive rockets, which keep falling daily despite frequent Israeli airstrikes and occasional ground offensives.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to provide “better security for the residents,” indicating he would step up the Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants.
“We will not limit ourselves in regards to targeting the rocket launchers and those who dispatch them,” Olmert said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
“The instruction given to the army is to destroy every ’Qassam’ rocket launcher and anyone who is involved in their launching against the residents of Israel.”
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for launching seven rockets at Sderot. Hamas, the larger Islamic group that rules Gaza, was bracing for retaliation.
“We are taking this new threat by Olmert seriously,” Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said. “We are warning of coming massacres against the people in Gaza.”
Hamas overran Gaza in June, vanquishing forces loyal to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah. Hamas, which does not recognise Israel and has sent dozens of suicide bombers into the Jewish state, has made no effort to stop the rocket barrages, instead joining in with its own rocket squads.
Sderot, a working-class town of 22,000, has been battered by thousands of the crude projectiles launched in recent years from the Gaza Strip, which lies a mile away.
The unguided rockets rarely cause serious injuries or damage, but they sow panic.
Rockets exploded near several schools in town today, just a day after the school year began. Images of students ducking into shelters, young schoolchildren wailing uncontrollably and teachers shielding terrified toddlers with their own bodies outraged parents.
“Of course I’ll take them out. Should I leave them in the hands of Hamas?” Nahum Bitton said, as he arrived to take his children home.
Batya Katar, head of the Sderot Parents Association, said parents were pulling all 2,500 of the town’s students out of school.
“Buses are already on the way to pick up students who haven’t been taken home,” she said, the voices of panicked parents clearly audible in the background.
Later she said parents have declared a strike to close all Sderot schools tomorrow.
The Education Ministry announced that studies would continue, but Katar said parents would not allow their children to return to school until the government moved them to classrooms out of rocket range. “The school year is over. We can’t hold on any more,” Katar said.
Olmert pledged to continue fortifying schools in Sderot, and he has given no indication that students would be moved elsewhere.
“We want to do everything needed to create a sense of security for our residents, who are living under impossible circumstances. I know how hard it is,” he said.
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal has long called for a full scale ground invasion of Gaza to root out the rocket launchers. On Monday, he got some support from Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of parliament’s powerful Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee, who said Israel had to seriously consider the option.
“At some stage, decided by Israel, there will be no choice but to wage a campaign in the Gaza Strip,” he told Army Radio.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni hinted that Israel might impose unspecified sanctions on the Gaza Strip if the Palestinians continue to target southern Israel.
“I don’t want to suggest here what kind of steps we can take,” Livni said, at a news conference in Jerusalem with Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. “I don’t refer only to military means. The Gaza Strip depends on Israel’s goodwill in several things, and I think it’s time we will discuss what kinds of means and steps we can take.”
