Palestinian Rocket and Mortar Barrage
on Israel’s Communities Continues

Sderot home after direct hit by a Kassam rocket. Photo by Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

(IFM) More than 40 rockets were fired at southern communities Tuesday afternoon and evening, most targeting Sderot, where the Color Red siren was sounded 14 times. Toward nightfall, a rocket hit a power line and city residents remained in the dark until it was repaired.

A Grad Katyusha missile fired from northern Gaza Tuesday afternoon landed near a tennis court in a southern Ashkelon neighborhood.

At least 10 people, including a 5-year-old girl, sustained shrapnel wounds. Lior Ben-Shimol, 5, was at her neighbor’s house playing with their children when the attack occurred. The girl’s father, Yaron, said, "I heard an explosion and saw a Kassam had hit the neighbor’s house. I ran to the house and saw my daughter drenched in blood." He said his daughter had already been given psychological help to cope with the stress of living under constant attack.

The Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks as well as for the firing of some 25 mortar bombs.