Israel Matzav

Practice improves your aim

A fourteen-year old and a thirteen-year old from Sderot are fighting for their lives tonight after absorbing a direct hit from a Kassam rocket. One of the teenagers was critically wounded and the other was seriously wounded in the eighth Kassam strike of the day. (I got the number of rockets from DEBKAfile and not from the Jerusalem Post article linked above, nor from Israel Radio, which counted six rockets). According to the Jerusalem Post,

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Red Alert alarm sounded throughout Sderot; 10 seconds later, the rocket landed near a group of schoolchildren who were headed for the nearest shelter. Ninth-graders Matan Cohen and Adir Bassad, however, had no time to reach the shelter and were hit by shrapnel.

Cohen and Bassad were rushed to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. This sounds like they are in very bad shape:

Doctors told an Israel Radio interviewer shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday that Bassad, who suffered hits to his chest and stomach, was not yet stabilized, and a surgical team was battling to save his life.

Cohen, whose major wound was to his leg, was reported stabilized.

A number of other people were reported in shock.

One of the medics who treated the boys reported that one of them was likely to lose his legs. One of the boys had a bone sticking out of one of his legs, he said, and the other's ankle was completely twisted.

Meanwhile, the people of Sderot, which is NotInMyBackyard, have had it:

Meanwhile, the scene outside was chaotic as agitated residents came out of their homes to survey the damage. Cars windows were smashed, and the upstairs windows of homes in the vicinity were completetly shattered.

Frustration and anger were the prevailing emotions at the scene of the attack.

"Our children are getting hurt over here and nobody's doing anything about this," one resident shouted.

"We can't go out anywhere, not to the shopping mall, or anywhere," another resident said.

Others vented their anger at the press members who were covering the incident. "You guys are going to interview us and maybe show a minute or two, but you don't really feel our pain," one resident accused.

Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert will convene the security authorities tomorrow to discuss the so-called restraint policy. Defenseless Defense Minister Amir Comrade Peretz - who is from Sderot and whose security guard lost his legs outside Peretz's home a few weeks ago to a Kassam - has had enough.

"We cannot continue to restrain ourselves," Peretz told the prime minister. "We cannot let Islamic Jihad do whatever they want, and we need to take action to stop the Kassams."

Earlier today, a Kassam shot by the 'Palestinians' hit near a 'strategic facility' in Ashkelon for the second time in two days, causing damage to the facility. No one will tell you which facility it was, but as I have noted in the past, there are three 'strategic facilities' in Ashkelon:

The sensitive sites include:

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, 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.

A total of sixty-two Kassam rockets have now been shot at Israel in the month since the Olmert-Peretz-Livni government agreed to the 'cease fire' hudna. The United Nations 'human rights council' will not be sending Bishop Desmond Tutu to Sderot or to Ashkelon to investigate.

For the record, I do not believe this will cause the government to abandon its 'restraint' policy. If a rocket (God forbid) killed ten or more people in Ashkelon, that would be a different story.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:56 PM