The renewal of intense Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilian areas has put Israelis in a somber mood during the usually festive week of Chanukah.
Since the army operation, the region has been hit by a daily barrage of rockets — about a dozen Monday, more than 30 the day before. Sixty have fallen on Sderot alone so far this month, according to the town\’s security officer. The situation essentially is returning to what it had been for much of the past eight years.
Sderot\’s residents expressed optimism about the latest of a series of high-profile visitors to the town, the man who one day may be U.S. president, Barack Obama
The only school in Acre that serves both Jewish and Arab pupils — the el-Mahaba, took a direct hit from a rocket during the war.
The Israeli consulate has not been a site for demonstrations since the disengagement from Gaza last summer, and last Thursday\’s demonstration and counterdemonstration was relatively small — perhaps attesting to general world support for the release of the kidnapped soldier.
Leaving Gaza also made sense morally, said Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
\”For Israel to remain a democratic and Jewish state, it cannot occupy and control millions of Palestinians indefinitely,\” he said.
As Israeli troops moved deeper into northern Gaza to put a stop to Palestinian rocket fire on the small Negev town of Sderot, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was confident that the huge military operation would radically change the situation on the ground.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has instructed Boeing to determine if high levels of a contaminant used in rocket fuel and found on property owned by the Brandeis-Bardin Institute (BBI) came from the company\’s Rocketdyne testing site located nearly a mile away.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.