Qassam hits new area; residents 'unprepared’

[oberliner]

Sunday evening a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open field within the Merhavim Regional Council. No injuries or property damage were reported,.However, teams dispatched to pinpoint the landing site said that this was the first time the area was hit by rockets.

The direct landing site for the rocket has still not been ascertained, and security personnel will try to determine exactly where the rocket landed during daylight hours Monday.

Residents of a nearby community reported hearing a louder than usual explosion as the rocket landed. One of the residents, Ovadia Morad, reported hearing rumors of an “improved longer range Qassam,” but these have not been confirmed by security officials.

“We are pretty used to hearing blasts and explosions coming from the Sderot area,” said Morad,”and we can even hear the numerous Color Red alerts. We usually don’t get overly excited about explosions.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3507991,00.html

[pelsar]

1. i spent saturday in Sederot....

for 3 years now people walk around, sleep and work waiting for the siren to go off giving them 15 seconds to stop what they are doing and find a shelter. A complete disruption of anything they're doing. If they're home they go to what they believe is their most sheltered room.

kids dont play outside, no parent wants to take that risk. No parties...no parent wants the responsibility of having 20-30 kids under their roof or in their backyard. bus stops are now all "kassam proof"....parks have concrete walls in areas to protect from the kassams for people who are walking by (or for when the kids do venture outside with their parents.) Bathing your kids takes on a new meaning as does shopping...life revolves around the next kassam that will be sent...

Most of the kassams are aimed at when people are outside:... morning hours when people are going to work and school (the school area is a favorite target area) or in the afternoon when school is out and the parents go to pick them up...parents dont want their kids walking home.


Its easy to see Beit Chanon...where many of the kassams are fired from...a residential area on Gazas N.E side.....one can watch the smoke trail as its launched and hear the boom 20 seconds later.

the general feeling for residents is that the IDF should simply raze beit chanon..its been 6 years since the kassams started falling on sederot.....and the excuses for their shooting keeps on changing....

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. I can't help but read that and wonder...

the conditions you describe sound like heaven compared to the conditions inside Gaza.

Don't you think it's time for the Israeli gov't to get serious and negotiate a ceasefire, and then a settlement?

There is no military solution to this Pelsar.

[azurnoir]

4. until it will cost the Israeli government more

to maintain the "status quo" than it would to negotiate they have no reason to do so and will not, for right wingers the military solution is a no brainer and will be eventually used, why do you think there is all the ratchet up of stories about how much suffering the poor, poor citizens of Sderot are enduring, it is a political game get the worlds sympathy focused on Sderot no do not look over ther they are hardly human, they do not matter, they celebrate their children's deaths, WE on the other are simple settlers we are human, we suffer.
Until some outside power has the guts to stand up to Israel and actually do something besides wag their finger nothing will change and many, many more Gazans will die silently and in the dark.

[pelsar]

6. i 'm actually against negotiation...

in this context....i just think hamas simply has to stop shooting and israel doesnt have to give anything in return. Hamas is trying to make this into a "blackmail" situation:

"we'll stop trying to kill you/destroy your city if you give us......" sounds like the mafia and their protection racket.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. I guess that attitude is going to keep the rockets flying.

Sad about the human suffering on both sides, and sad that neither leadership is willing to make any genuine moves towards resolving the conflict. I wish the leadership of both sides would begin to care more about the welfare and suffering of their own people.

[azurnoir]

3. NO the excses do not change

so now yo are claiming that the citizens of Sderot are promoting Gaza simply be razed and what of the people living there?

[pelsar]

5. i was simply giving a 'report"

the residents of sederot (the ones i spoke with) are pretty fed up with living under constant rocket attack and believe that their govt has failed them. The general reaction is to "raze" beit chanon." They werent in fact too concerned with the gazans who they see as 100% responsible for the rockets being fired from their own neighborhood.

your wrote "i'm claiming..." its up to you to chose to believe what i wrote or not....if you prefer, you can believe that i stay home on saturday, played some tennis and just made it up...feel free.

[azurnoir]

7. I questioned because

I have recently read more "sympathetic" statements from citizens of Sderot, but then opinions are like .... well you know everyone has at least one.
What is troublesome is that in the past week or so the more hawkish among the people of Sderot are getting press, which could make appear that there is solid support in Sderot for renewed military action if not outright invasion of Gaza, with what ever the consequences for the people of Gaza who according to your statement the people Sderot hold 101% responsible for the every kassam.

[pelsar]

9. sederot residents are getting a bit fed up....

thats why their protesting in jerusalem.....6 years of bombardment (random) is simply getting on their nerves. They've been very quiet and patient given the responsibility that the israeli govt has and is not living up to..whatever the solution is.

and as the rockets get bigger, go longer and more areas are included there will be more protest....

[subsuelo]

11. thank you for providing a first hand account

The whole situation for the residents is appalling.

As for the idea of razing Beit Chanon... No. Not acceptable to even consider.

[pelsar]

10. israelis risk their lives to give electricity to gaza

the electrical plant that supplies gaza with electricity has been hit by several kassams
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3223366,00.html-whereas this article is relatively old... but they havent stopped shooting northward

(its usually kept out of the news....as the kassam shooters also like to know where they hit).
____

so now we have israelis working to give electricity to gaza....and the gaza ruling powers are trying to kill those very people...and then they also complain about israel cutting off the electricity.

maybe if hamas is lucky, one of their kassams will hit one of the transformers, stop the electricity to gaza and then they can complain how evil israel is...

[Vegasaurus]

12. It really is upside down land

that the militants and government of Gaza actually tries to bomb the very plant providing them with THEIR electricity.

It's like dumb and dumber.