Israel's Home Front Widens as Ashdod, Ashkelon Come Under Fire

by Calev Ben-David and Amanda Bennett
Bloomberg
December 30, 2008

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/557/israels-home-front-widens-as-ashdod-ashkelon-come

The Israeli home front grew broader yesterday.

On the third day of Israel's air strikes against Hamas, Palestinian rockets struck Ashdod for the first time, killing one person in the port city of 200,000 about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Gaza. Ashkelon, about 15 kilometers north of Gaza, also suffered its first rocket-attack fatality.

Those numbers are small compared with at least 345 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its offensive on Dec. 27. Still, it reflects a sobering new reality for communities that previously were spared from direct assault.

"Our people are hiding in shelters and our children are hiding under their school desks," Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin said on Israel Television. "This can't continue."

Last night, the Army Home Front Command announced the cancellation of all school classes for communities within 20 kilometers of the Gaza border.

Residents in communities newly under fire will have to learn to head for shelters when they hear the warning sirens, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, an Ashkelon native, said at a Sderot press conference.

Sderot, a town of about 20,000 less than 3 kilometers from the Gaza border, has already become wearily accustomed to the cross-border fire. At the police station, shelves of Qassam rockets are stacked rusting in a rear courtyard, remnants of the thousands shot at the town since 2001. Behind a glass case, labeled rockets sport the colors of their makers -- green for Hamas and yellow for Islamic Jihad.

Playground Shelters

Covered bus stops are made of concrete for safety. An outdoor basketball court features a blue reinforced arched cover for protection against attacks; playgrounds include cheerfully painted red, yellow and blue concrete shelters to permit youngsters to take cover when rocket alerts sound.

"Our children have grown to a dark reality," said David Bouskila, Sderot's mayor.

Yesterday, two Qassam rockets hit Sderot within an hour. The first, at about 11:15 a.m., bored a 2-foot (0.6-meter) hole in the sidewalk in front of a one-story stone-block house in a residential neighborhood. The shock crumpled the fronts of four cars, smashing their windshields, and mangled the roof of the home. There were no injuries.

Israeli helicopters hovered; several times, the boom of overhead shelling shook the area, and thick grey smoke poured from the nearby Gaza Strip.

Four Years Later

Neighbors and curious residents clustered around the house. A man who appeared to be in his early 70s stood in the doorway, shaking his head as he surveyed broken crockery and the remains of a crushed washing machine on the front porch.

In the same neighborhood almost four years ago, a 17-year- old girl died in a similar rocket attack, said Shalom Halevi, assistant to former Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal. She is one of 14 Sderot residents killed by the rockets.

The second attack yesterday, about 45 minutes later, hit the center of the town, damaging an apartment building, Halevi said. He said about a dozen people were injured, none seriously; they were treated at neighborhood emergency medical facilities.

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