Rocket fire defines life in southern Israeli town

Few residents of the Israeli town of Sderot are on the streets these days. They prefer to sit out the war in safer parts of the country or barricade themselves at home as Palestinian rockets keep coming despite Israel's devastating military offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers. One mile outside Gaza, Sderot was for years the top target of Palestinian rocket fire. Its residents have long demanded a military campaign to wipe out Gaza rocket squads, saying the current disruption of their lives is a small price to pay if the war brings what they long for: the ability to walk outside without hearing the dreaded rocket alert.

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Dr.

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The evening attack came shortly after the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations filed an official complaint with the Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the increased rocket attacks emanating from Gaza.

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Mayor of the southern Israeli town of Sderot, David Buskila, on Saturday sent a scathing letter to South African justice Richard Goldstone, who headed the United Nations fact finding mission on Israel's offensive in Gaza last winter.

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Interviewer: Maybe this is one reason why the Israeli government decided not to cooperate with your commission. I mean the commission, your commission, Mr.

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United Nations Human Rights Council Judge Richard Goldstone, whose 575-page report on Wednesday condemned Israel for war crimes, fell asleep while he was supposed to be watching a film showing Sderot children fleeing from rocket fire.

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Israel launched the blockade on the Gaza Strip in response to persistent Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli communities in the western Negev.

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Hamas's policy of restraint continues, and no rockets or mortar shells were fired into Israeli territory this past week. In the Mt.

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This past week a rocket hit a house in the southern Israeli city of Sderot . It was the first time since the end of March that a rocket hit was identified there.

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After two months of relief from the constant barrage of Hamas launched rockets, Sderot's silence was shattered.

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Speaks for itself.

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Several hours after Palestinians fired a Kassam rocket into a Sderot residential area for the first time in over two months, the IAF responded by bombing targets in the Gaza Strip.

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Earlier this week Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. Standing on a street in Sderot, I listened quietly to the siren sound, remembering the tragedy of 6 million Jews killed in Nazi Europe, my great grandparents, uncles and aunts from Poland among them.

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The very hour Chana Melul returned to Sderot with her three young boys, whom she'd taken on vacation up north to escape the front lines, the rockets were back.

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SDEROT, Israel — A year ago, as Hamas rockets from Gaza rained down almost daily on this Israeli border town, Stanley M. Chesley, president of the Jewish National Fund, was on a solidarity visit here and realized that he saw no children playing outdoors. It was too dangerous.

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This video gives the viewer an idea of what its like for children tolive under constant threat of unexpected missile attack (they have a mere 15 seconds after the alarm sounds to run for shelter).

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"Operation Cast Lead is over. Everything is back to normal. It's quiet in Sderot. The click of the intercom followed by the voice that repeatedly stated Tzeva Adom, followed by the explosion a few seconds later--have all disappeared.

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"A student at Sapir College near Sderot has over the past week collected 10 truckloads of basic supplies, which she hopes to deliver to the people of Gaza.

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Qassam fired from Gaza hits open area near Sderot early Thursday morning, only hours after IAF strikes weapons production site in Rafah in response to earlier attack on Eshkol Regional Council

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"At 10 a.m. on Sunday, 12 hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral cease-fire, a military vehicle full of soldiers passed this reporter on the road to Sderot. They all waved.

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"As Operation Cast Lead draws to an apparent close, hundreds of Israelis, including those from rocket-battered communities in the Gaza periphery, are mobilizing to help suffering civilians on the opposite side of the border.

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UPDATE: The cartoon is no longer at that url-- but now it may be seen HERE Probably the best explanation I've seen yet as to why the people of Gaza are undergoing so much misery.

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" Liraz Madmony, a 23-year-old law student from Sderot, addressed the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Gaza in Geneva on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) on Monday, before the vote by the council that condemned Israel's military offensive in Gaza a …

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This letter is a translation of Hebrew that demonstrates even the resident of Sderot are against the violence in Gaza. That these people DO NOT DEFEND Hamas, but wish to stop the killing of innocent people.

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So let's talk about Sderot, that town in Israel that the Israelis claim as the main symbol justifying starving 1.5 million dirt-poor civilian refugees in Gaza, murdering almost 1000 now (by the time I'm done typing maybe we'll be over that number) and wounding thousands more inno …

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Israel Rains Death, Blood and Destruction Across Gaza - No End In Sight!

Following the conflict in Gaza can bring some serious emotions forward. First of all, there's the consistent reporting of murdered children, which has been giving me simultaneous bouts of anger and sadness. If that's not enough, there's the pictures:

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