JERUSALEM (EJP)—Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday struck an industrial factory in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, causing a large fire in the area.
Emergency rescue teams rushed to the area following the terrorist attack. Sderot is the nearest Israeli city from the Gaza Strip, located only 1 kilometer from the border.
Four workers who were inside the factory when the rocket hit managed to escape. Two of them, 23 and 59 years old, were taken to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon suffering from light burns.
The fire in the factory led to smaller explosions inside the factory, caused by paint canisters that caught on fire. ‘’A fireball rose 200 meters from the burning factory, it was horrible,’’ said one of te people injured.
In response to the rocket strikes and in order to prevent further attacks, an Israeli army aircraft targeted four terror activity sites, six concealed rocket launchers and two weapons manufacturing sites in Gaza.
At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said : ‘’Over the weekend, the IDF attacked multiple targets in response to firing at Israel from the Gaza Strip. We are ready to expand this operation as per need. I would like to reiterate that from the moment the Palestinian unity government was established with the Hamas terrorist organization, the Palestinian Authority became responsible for preventing firing at our territory from the Gaza Strip.’’
Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Yaalon said : “We will strike painful blows.”
On Saturday evening, six rockets and two mortars were fired at Israel. Three of the rockets hit the Eshkol Regional Council and an additional rocket hit the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
In response to these attacks, an IAF aircraft targeted two terror activity sites, a weapons-manufacturing facility and a weapons-storage facility in Gaza.
Earlier Saturday, an explosive device was activated against forces working adjacent to the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip.
Eight explosive devices have been activated against IDF soldiers since the beginning of the year. Additionally, Gaza terrorists have fired over 50 rockets at southern
For more than a week, terrorists groups in Gaza have continued to fire rockets at Israel.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, 8,000 rockets have been fired into Israel. 15 people have been killed and 1500 injured, according to Noam Bedin, Director of the Sderot Media Center. ‘’This town is probably the sole in the world under permanent rocket fire since the last ten years,’’ he told this week a group of European journalists visiting Israel as part of a press trip organized by Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA).
The journalists visited the emergency center where representatives of the city, the Israeli Red Cross and the firefighters meet when rockets fall.
‘’Every single person in Sderot has been experiencing the rocket fire,” Bedin said as he showed the European reporters the 20 types of Gaza rockets that are displayed at the police station as a ‘’rocket museum’’: Qassam, Grad, Al Qaeda rockets,….
7,000 Sderot residents who had left the city over the years because of the rockets have come back and new factories and housing units are been built. The population is made up of Israelis of North African, Ethiopian and even Northeast Indian origin.
Over 3.5 million Israelis are currently living under threat of rocket attacks.
Although Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense system stops some of the attacks, most rockets are capable of reaching Israel’s biggest southern cities. More than half a million Israelis have less than 60 seconds to find shelter after a rocket is launched from Gaza into Israel. Sderot is too close from the Gaza border to allow Irion Dome system to intercept rockets fired into the city.
Every single house in the city has a bomb shelter where residents have to run when a Code Red siren is sounding. Half a billion shekels have been dedicated by the government to build these shelters.
“The city’s residents are not deterred by the heinous and cowardly actions of terrorists who are firing rockets from Gaza towards civilian populations,” Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said.
‘’97 % of all Gaza rockets are fired from populated sites in the Strip, including from an hospital,’’ stressed Noam Bedein.