In yet another Kassam rocket attack on Sderot this morning, an apartment suffered a direct hit - but the family had spent the night in Be’er Sheva, for fear of Kassam rockets.

Sderot, only three kilometers from northern Gaza, has been rocketed by Arab-fired Kassams very intensively over the past few weeks - and the IDF admits that its presence in northern Gaza has not helped. The army took over the area five weeks ago after a Kassam attack killed a 3-year-old boy on his way to nursery, and another man standing nearby.

Six people standing outside the apartment were hurt in today’s attack, and were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon and treated for shock. The police called the owner of the stricken apartment to inform him of what had happened. When he arrived and saw the damage, he was unable to speak - either from the magnitude of the damage, the miracle that had befallen him, or both. His daughter in Be’er Sheva said, “I still cannot believe that just yesterday they came to me because they were afraid of rockets.”

Another near-miss occurred this past Friday when the Itzik Ohayon, whose little son Afik was the one who was killed last month, visited his son’s gravesite. “I live in Be’er Sheva,” he told Ynet, “but I come here every Friday to the grave. About 50 meters away, suddenly a Kassam rocket landed, like a grim reminder of that terrible Monday…” Afik’s mother lost her leg in the attack and is still hospitalized

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004 and is filed under hotnews.