Sderot Mayor Offers Bitter Observation

(IsraelNN.com) Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal observed bitterly Sunday that the state’s inability to protect his town’s residents from Kassam rocket attacks fired by Palestinian Authority terrorists in Gaza was an indictment of the Zionist dream.

“Sderot’s downfall is the downfall of the entire Zionist enterprise,” said the mayor hours after one of his fellow residents had been killed by a Kassam rocket. “If you want to want to strengthen this town, the only way is to fill it, and not empty it.”

Some 10,000 of the town’s 24,000 residents have fled in the face of rocket attacks; more than 230 rockets have been fired at Sderot and other communities in the western Negev since May 15th. The IDF has not yet received orders to launch a ground operation to end the rocket attacks.

Sderot Man Killed in Morning Kassam Attack

by Ezra HaLevi and Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Four Kassam rockets were fired at the Western Negev city of Sderot Sunday morning, leaving one man dead. A rocket crashed into his car, and he suffered sharp gashes in his neck. The Israeli civilian crashed into a wall, was rushed to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, and died within an hour of his wounds.

Another person was lightly injured, and several people were treated for shock. School children waiting for buses to take them to their first day of classes outside of Kassam range in areas surrounding Sderot, panicked upon the sounding of the “Color Red” rocket alert.

Earlier in the morning, another two rockets landed in central Sderot, causing damage but no casualties.

Today’s victim was Oshri Oz, 36, of Hod HaSharon, an employee of the Sderot-based “Peretz Bonei HaNegev” construction company. He was Israel’s tenth fatal casualty of a Kassam rocket in the past three years - and the second in the past week. Among the dead were three toddlers and a 17-year-old girl.

Click here to see a short video on the background and effects of Kassams in Sderot.

Two rockets hit Sderot Saturday night – one striking a house and destroying it and the other striking a building in the town’s industrial area. Three landed just south of the city of Ashkelon. The rest landed in open areas. No injuries were reported, though several were treated for shock.

Ten Kassam rockets were fired Saturday at the western Negev from Gaza.

Israel Air Force Attacks
In response to ongoing Kassam attacks on the civilian population of Sderot and environs, the Israel Air Force carried out dozens of air strikes throughout Gaza over the weekend.

The Air Force first struck a Hamas operations center in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood and a training camp near the area of Shati. Five Hamas terrorists were killed and 23 injured in the strikes, according to PA reports.

Another strike, minutes after those in Gaza City, hit Hamas targets in Rafiah, on the southern tip of Gaza.

Later, a Hamas training camp at the destroyed Jewish town of N’vei Dekalim, a bit further north, was hit by IAF missiles. Another missile hit a Hamas post in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City in central-northern Gaza.

On Friday, seven air strikes were carried out in Gaza, in which Kassam rocket launchers riding in a vehicle were struck, killing two and injuring six. The explosion caused by the missile was followed by another explosion, caused presumably by explosives in the vehicle.

One missile struck a guard post opposite PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s Gaza home, though the IDF states that Haniyeh was not the target of the attack. The Hamas chief was not home at the time, but showed up shortly afterward in a jogging suit, though his guards whisked him away when IAF jets were heard overhead. A senior Hamas terror-chief in charge of Kassam cells died Saturday in a Gaza hospital after being wounded in an air strike last week.

Hamas threatened that if Israeli strikes continued, Israel “could forget about [captive soldier Gilad] Shalit.” Shalit was captured by Hamas terrorists 11 months ago while guarding the Gaza-Israel border. Minister Rafi Eitan said that if a “hair on Shalit’s head is harmed, Haniye himself [the prime minister of the Hamas Authority] will be hit.”

Judea and Samaria
IDF forces arrested Hamas Cabinet Minister Wasfi Kabha from his home in Samaria Saturday. This brings to 34 the number of Hamas politicians arrested in the last week by the IDF.

A Fatah Al-Aksa Brigades terrorist, Raed Abdul Razek, was killed in a gun battle with IDF troops in Tubas, in northern Samaria. In internal Arab feuds, Al-Aksa Brigades terrorists stormed a PA security office on Saturday, opening fire on members of the Hamas-controlled militia inside, wounding seven.

IDF troops at the Hawara checkpoint outside Shechem found three pipe bombs in a PA Arab’s bag. The man was arrested.

Standing Together in Sderot

(IsraelNN.com) The “Standing Together” organization is set to show its solidarity with the residents of Sderot and the IDF soldiers working to protect the western Negev with a trip to the besieged town on Sunday.

“We will be bringing our mobile kiosk and offering coffee, pizza and snacks to soldiers, residents and children who have been affected by this terrible war,” read a statement issued by the organization. “All of the food we will be distributing will be purchased locally.”

Israelis were encouraged to donate to the project or join the volunteers in their trip to Sderot and do their shopping there. “If the stores that have remained open do not get enough traffic they cannot continue to do business,” observed organization spokeswoman Miriam Gottlieb, in the statement. “This will leave the residents who have stayed in their homes no place to buy their milk and bread and other necessities.”

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