Sirens sound in Tel Aviv suburbs, Beersheba
and Ashkelon on Sunday morning • More than 40 rockets intercepted by
Iron Dome over the weekend • Rocket directly strikes yard of Gan Yavne
kindergarten • Rocket damages vehicles in Ashdod.
A home in Gan Yavne damaged
by a rocket, Friday
 |
Sunday may have marked the start of a new week in Israel, but one things remained the same -- rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday morning, sirens sounded in suburbs north of Tel Aviv. Hamas said it fired three M-75 rockets at the Tel Aviv area.
Later, sirens sounded in Rishon Lezion area, just south of Tel Aviv, and the Iron Dome intercepted an incoming rocket.
Rockets were also fired at the Beersheba and
Ashkelon regions on Sunday morning, as well as at communities adjacent
to the Gaza border.
On Friday and Saturday, more than 100 rocket
and mortar shells were fired from Gaza into southern and central Israel.
More than 40 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
In Gan Yavne, a rocket directly hit the yard
of a kindergarten and caused damage to nearby buildings, including two
homes and a synagogue. A 40-year-old woman was lightly wounded by
shrapnel.
Early Saturday morning, a Grad rocket struck a
populated area in Ashdod. There were no injuries, but several vehicles
were damaged, as was a road surface.
Tel Aviv residents had to scramble for cover
twice on Friday. Late Friday afternoon, the Iron Dome intercepted a
volley of rockets fired at Tel Aviv. Shrapnel fell in Bnei Brak and
Petach Tikva, but there were no injuries. Three hours later, another
salvo of rockets was fired at Tel Aviv. A motorcyclist was injured when
he was hit by a passing vehicle on the Ayalon highway as the rocket
warning sirens sounded.
Meanwhile, the absence of protective
facilities in the areas populated by Bedouin exacted the heaviest
possible toll on Friday when 30-year-old Oudi al-Waj was killed and his
3-month-old daughter was seriously wounded as a rocket fired from Gaza
struck their home. The victim's 4-year-old son and his wife, 24, were
also wounded, as was one other relative.
A friend of the family said that "when they
say that rockets exploded in open areas, that means they exploded where
we live. The Iron Dome system does not intercept these rockets, there
are no sirens and we don't have shelters. This particular rocket struck
these people's home, 50 meters from my house. They didn't have a chance.
Their house was hit directly, and it isn't even a house -- it is a kind
of hut."
The infant suffered head injuries, and she is
currently under a medically induced coma. The 4-year-old sustained light
shrapnel injuries all over his body.
"We didn't hear any siren," said the
children's maternal grandfather who spent the weekend next to his
daughter's hospital bed. "But even if we had, there would not have been
anything for us to do. There is nowhere to hide."
"He was a good guy. He worked and provided for his family. He never did anything bad," the grandfather said.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
remarked that "last Thursday, Defense Ministry representatives argued
before the High Court of Justice that the incoming rockets posed
practically no threat to the residents of the unrecognized villages in
the Negev, and that all they need to do is lay down on the ground when
they hear the rockets whizzing overhead, because there is no siren." The
argument was made after the Bedouin residents, together with ACRI,
filed a petition demanding that the state provide protection to the
100,000 people living in that region.
The state rejected the petition on the claim
that "the current situation in the Bedouin villages, the absence of
shelters and protected areas, is not a result of intended discrimination
or any kind of policy but rather a result of unauthorized construction
in flagrant disregard of rules and regulations."
A Homefront Command official said that "over the last
several years, the Homefront Command has been operating on several
levels to improve the protection of the Bedouin population."
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