Jewish Current Issues: Saturday in Sderot

February 10, 2008

Saturday in Sderot

A resident gestures as he calls for Israel's government to take action to stop rocket attacks in the southern city of Sderot February 9, 2008. Two Israelis, one an eight-year-old boy, were seriously wounded by Palestinian rockets fired into southern Israel on Saturday, medical workers and police said. Hamas Islamists, who seized the Gaza Strip in June, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. (Reuters/Amir Cohen).

Israeli medics evacuate a person wounded after a rocket landed in the southern town of Sderot February 9, 2008. Reuters/Amir Cohen

Israeli residents burn tires in protest as they block a road after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip hit the town of Sderot, southern Israel, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008. A 19 year-old man and his 8 year-old brother were seriously wounded Saturday when a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip landed . . . near the children on a road in the center of the town of Sderot” (AP Photo/Moti Milrod)

Eight-year-old Osher Twito and his brother Rami, 19, were seriously wounded when a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip exploded as they were walking on a street in Sderot on Saturday evening (9 Feb). They were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, where Osher underwent extensive surgery and doctors were forced to amputate one of his legs.

Rami is recovering from surgery. Their mother Iris and another brother were treated for shock. The Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. In Gaza, terrorists celebrated their "success", as gunmen from the Al-Quds Brigades fired in the air and broadcasted victory messages from mosque loudspeakers.

At least seven Kassam rockets were fired Friday evening (8 Feb), penetrating the roof of a home in Sderot where a girl, her parents, and her grandfather were eating dinner. All four suffered from shock.

Since the Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007 until the end of January 2008, 697 missiles (of which 241 in January alone) and 822 mortar bombs have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev.