Missile from Gaza causes schools to close in Sderot "I pray a Qassam won't fall on the way to school"

SDEROT, 5 September 2007 (IRIN) - On 3 September, the second day of the school year, a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip landed near a day care centre for toddlers in the Israeli town of Sderot. Parents in the town promptly met and decided to take their children out of all schools in the town from 5 September.

"We would have closed down the elementary schools as well [immediately], but we needed to give parents time to work out alternatives for their children," said Sasson Sarah, the head of the local parents' committee, explaining the decision.

The committee said it would protest on 5 September in Jerusalem, demanding more protection from the government.

Several children with mental disorders were in a school bus along with 12 toddlers from the day care centre when the rocket landed nearby. They were taken to hospital suffering from shock, medical officials said.

Altogether, seven rockets, dubbed locally Qassams after the version made famous by the Hamas movement's military wing, landed in Sderot on 3 September.

The Islamic Jihad took responsibility, saying they were a "gift" for the new school year.

However, children and their parents could be seen making their way to school early in the morning of 4 September.

Yosef, a second grade pupil, walked with his mother and sister. The trio, recent immigrants from Ethiopia, were nervous as they marched on.

"Last [school] year, Qassams fell near his school. When I heard about the one falling near the toddler centre yesterday, I got so scared," Galat, the mother, said.

"If the rockets fall, I run for cover," said Yosef, demonstrating what he learned from teachers in Sderot, a regular target of militants' rocket attacks, and only about 800 metres from the Gaza Strip.

"It's frightening to live like this"

Sderot has approximately 3,000 students in grades 1-12 and about another 600 youngsters in kindergartens and pre-schools.

The death toll from the rockets has reached nine, including four children. Some 2,086 have landed in the past two years, officials said, causing anxiety among residents.

"It's frightening to live like this," said Avi Tiger, the chief paramedic at Magen David Adom in Sderot, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross/Red Crescent.

"Don't get me wrong, even we [in the emergency services] are scared," he added.

His teams are always on high alert, he said, because "one time the rocket will hit something big".

Reactions

Meanwhile, some residents of Gaza are concerned over statements made to Israel's largest-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, by Israel's Vice-Premier Haim Ramon.

"We should announce that for every Qassam fired towards Israel we will stop for periods of time - two to three hours - the supply of electricity, water and fuel to the strip [Gaza]," he said.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak subsequently said he ordered his staff to examine "the operational and legal aspects of steps designed to limit Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip", including measures like those suggested by Ramon. Media reports said most cabinet members would support such steps.

"But, there is no intent to cause serious humanitarian harm to the civilian population in Gaza," a security official told IRIN.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the rocket attacks during a press conference in Ramallah on 4 September.

Three Palestinian children, aged 9-11, all from one extended family, were killed by an Israeli shell in Gaza just last week.


Sima Ohiyon, Israel, "I pray a Qassam won't fall on the way to school"

SDEROT, 5 September 2007 (IRIN) - Sima Ohaiyon, a resident of Sderot and mother of three, walked her four-year-old daughter Osher, which means "happiness" in Hebrew, to her new school on 4 September, a day after a rocket fired from Gaza landed outside a day care centre for toddlers.

"It's not an easy time in Sderot. There are too many rockets falling.

"This morning I was scared. I debated about taking them to school. I waited and waited, because usually the rockets come early. Eventually, when all was quiet, I decided to take Osher to school.

"I can't break her routine. She is just starting school. This is her first year. These first few days are important for her.

"My older child's school is on strike today. Last year, he stopped his after-school activities after a Qassam [rocket] landed in the football field. He was too scared to go back.

"I have to walk 15 minutes to get to Osher's school, and the whole way I pray that no Qassam falls on the way to school.

"My husband said he wants to leave this town, go somewhere else, some place safer. But our family is here and our work is here. And we can't afford to move.

"Every time the "red colour" [alert siren] goes off, my little baby, who's one year and nine months old, starts to scream. We all rush for cover in the protective areas.

"Now, even if it's just a truck backing up outside she screams. I'm worried about this."


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8 home-made rockets make panic and hysteria in Sderot while the arterially bombardment did not make panic to the Palestinian people!!

Ezzedeen Alqassam Brigades, 03/09/07. Sderot settlers told Ynet, a Zionist internet website, that the rockets fell while their kids were on their way to their schools and kindergartens. "When the alarm went off, the bus driver stopped near one of the fortified houses. He asked the girls to run and hide there," a mother said.

In the Gaza Strip , and while the children were playing , a Zionist missile hit them making them died. The incident was investigated by the Zionist army and concluded that the children were seen playing near their house-they are cousins.

The Palestinian resistance men fired a group of rockets in response to the daily crimes against the Palestinian people, especially the children's crime.

While the Zionist media pictured the seen as the resistance men are making terror inside the settlements. On the fact that we have the right to make terror inside an illegal places on our lands. However, the resistance men are only respond to the zoinist aggression and daily crimes against the Palestinian residents.

Children of war. IDF own words show it doesn't care if it kills children

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 02/09/07. Again children. Five children killed in Gaza in eight days. The public indifference to their killing - the last three, for example, were accorded only a short item on the margins of page 11 in Yedioth Ahronoth, a sickening matter in itself - cannot blur the fact that the IDF is waging a war against children. A year ago, a fifth of those killed in the "Summer Rain" operation in Gaza were children; during the past two weeks, they comprised a quarter of the 21 killed. If, heaven forbid, children are hurt in Sderot, we will have to remember this before we begin raising hell.

The IDF explains that the Palestinians make a practice of sending children to collect the Qassam launchers. However, in this case, the children killed were not collecting launchers. The first two were killed while collecting carob fruit and the next three - according to the IDF's own investigation - were playing tag. But even if we accept the IDF's claim that there is a general trend of sending children to collect launchers (which has not been proven), that should have brought about an immediate halt to firing at launcher collectors.

But the IDF does not care whether its victims are liable to be children. The fact is that it shoots at figures it considers suspicious, with full knowledge - according to its own contention - that they are liable to be children. Therefore, an IDF that fires at launcher collectors is an army that kills children, without any intention of preventing this. This then is not a series of unfortunate mistakes, as it is being portrayed, but rather reflects the army's contempt for the lives of Palestinian children and its terrifying indifference to their fate.

A society that holds ethical considerations in high regard would at least ask itself: Is it permissible to shoot at anyone who is approaching the launchers, even if we know that some of these people may be small children, lacking in judgment, and thus not punishable? Or are we lifting all restraints on our war operations? Even if we accept the IDF's claims that its sophisticated vision devices do not enable them to distinguish between a 10-year-old boy and an adult, the IDF cannot evade its responsibility for this criminal action. Even if we assumed a completely distorted assumption that anyone who goes near the launchers is subject to death, the fact that children are involved should have changed the rules. Add to this the fact that the firing at launcher collectors has not halted the Qassams, or even reduce their number, and you arrive at another chilling conclusion: The IDF shoots at children to wreak vengeance and punish.

No child in Sderot is more secure as a result of this killing. On the contrary.

Anyone who takes an honest look at the progression of events during the past two months will discover that the Qassams have a context: They are almost always fired after an IDF assassination operation, and there have been many of these. The question of who started it is not a childish question in this context. The IDF has returned to liquidations, and in a big way. And in their wake there has been an increase in Qassam firings.

That is the truth, and they are hiding it from us. When Gabi Ashkenazi and Ehud Barak assumed their positions, the reins were loosened. If Barak were a representative of the political right, perhaps a public outcry would have already been sounded against the IDF's wild actions in Gaza. But everything is permitted to Barak, and even the fact that the victims are children does not matter - not to him and not to the Israeli public.

Yes, the children of Gaza gather around the Qassams. It is practically the only diversion they have in their lives. It is their amusement park. Those who arrogantly preach to their parents "to watch over them" have never visited Beit Hanoun. There is nothing there, except for the filthy alleys and meager homes. Even if it is true that those launching the Qassams are taking advantage of these miserable children (which has yet to be proven), this should not shape our moral portrait. Yes, it is permissible to exercise restraint and caution. Yes, it is not always necessary to respond, especially when the response ends up killing children.

The way to stop the firing of Qassams is not through indiscriminate killing. Every launcher can be replaced. The start of the school year bodes ill, for us and for them. Anyone who truly seeks to stop the firing of Qassams should reach a cease-fire agreement with the current government in Gaza. That is the only way and it is possible. The liquidations, the shelling and the killing of children will work in exactly the opposite direction of what is intended. In the meantime, look what is happening to us and to our army.