Israel Matzav

Kassam rocket just misses 'strategic facility'

Palestinian terrorists fired a Kassam rocket fired from the Northern Gaza Strip this morning that just missed a 'strategic facility' in Ashkelon. YNet reports that the rocket landed in a field just south of the facility and that there was 'slight damage' to the site. The few employees who were present at the site at the time fled to secure areas before the rocket hit.

There are three strategic facilities in Ashkelon:

# The Rotenberg Power Plant, Israel's second-largest generating station which supplies an estimated quarter of the country's needs.

# The Ashkelon Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant, the largest desalination plant of its kind in the world. Launched last August (2005), the facility is ramping up to provide an annual flow of 100 million cubic litres of water, an estimated 15 per cent of domestic demand.

# The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, which controls three oil pipelines reaching to the port cities of Eilat, Ashdod and Haifa.

Unlike Sderot, where Kassams fall daily, Ashkelon has been quiet of late due to intensified IDF activity that has prevented Kassams from being shot from the relevant area of the Northern Gaza Strip.

For those who are wondering, yes, aside from the 'strategic facilities' in Ashkelon, Ashkelon is mostly middle and upper class Ashkenazi (Jews originally from the west), while Sderot is blue collar and mostly Sfardim (Jews originally from Arab countries) and 'immigrants' (i.e. Russians and Ethiopians).

'Nuff said.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:04 AM