One dead in Beersheba; baby, child lightly wounded in Ofakim; Ashdod, Ashkelon, farming communities also targeted.
By YAAKOV LAPPINbombed out car 311(photo credit: Israel Police)
A man was killed and two people were critically wounded by a Palestinian rocket barrage on Beersheba on Saturday night, following a weekend that saw more than 80 rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza.A woman was fighting for her life at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba.RELATED:'I heard an enormous explosion, and thought of my kids' Abbas calls for emergency UNSC session on Gaza strikes PM: Killing PRC leadership only first response to attacksDoctors there were also treating five more people who were injured by the rocket, which slammed into a residential street, destroying a vehicle and a home.Television footage showed shell-shocked residents, the remains of the vehicle and the burnt-out home.
Several people went into shock following the attacks, and required medical care.The man who was killed in the attack was on his way to his nine-month pregnant wife after hearing the air raid sirens and becoming concerned for her safety, media reports said.Police have instructed residents of the South to remain in safe zones and to remain tuned in to instructions from the IDF Home Front Command.Sirens were heard in Beersheba shortly before the rocket salvo struck the city. A witness told Channel 10 the injured had stood as close as they could to a wall to seek cover, when the rocket hit right next to them.The hospital said two people were in critical condition (one was a woman, the other was unidentified), two were in serious condition and two others sustained moderate wounds.Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch arrived at the scene of the attack in Beersheba, placing the blame for the assault squarely on the shoulders of Hamas."Hamas is responsible, it controls the Gaza Strip," Aharonovitch stated.Aharonovitch vowed that Hamas would pay a heavy price for the attacks on Israeli citizens.The rocket was part of a wider barrage, with locals hearing at least 11 explosions.A few minutes earlier, a Grad rocket from Gaza smashed into a home in Ofakim, starting a fire and sending shrapnel and debris flying, and wounding a four-month-old boy, a nine-year- old boy and a man in his early 20s. Emergency crews put out the fire and paramedics evacuated the three to Soroka in Beersheba with light injuries.Three more Grad rockets were fired from Gaza at Ofakim.There were conflicting reports over whether Hamas or the Popular Resistance Committees was behind the Beersheba and Ofakim rocket attacks.The two attacks were the latest in two days of rockets fired at cities, towns and farming communities throughout the South.Earlier on Saturday, a Grad rocket fired toward Ashkelon was intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system.The Color Red warning siren was sounded in the city before the interception. Ten mortar shells exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council, one of which hit in a kibbutz causing light damage to a building.Sixteen rockets from Gaza struck in the Eshkol Regional Council alone over the weekend.The rocket fire had intensified in the morning, with projectiles hitting in the Negev and the Lachish police subdistricts.The IDF Spokesman’s Office said more than 45 rockets had been fired at Israel by Saturday afternoon.Police bomb squad officers have retrieved the remains of 18 rockets.The Lachish subdistrict was hit with 28 rockets and the Negev subdistrict was hit with nine rockets by late afternoon.Beersheba was also targeted on Saturday morning, when a rocket hit on its outskirts. Four people in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council, north of the city, were hurt while running for shelter as warning sirens sounded, while another four went into shock and required medical care.Early on Saturday morning, three Palestinians working in Israel illegally were injured when a number of Grad rockets exploded in a field in southern Ashdod.Emergency sirens could be heard throughout the city before the blasts.Paramedics said the casualties suffered shrapnel wounds to the neck, chest and other parts of the body. Two were in serious condition.Vehicles and homes were damaged in Gaza-border communities, as well, during the afternoon.The Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council was struck on several occasions by dozens of rockets and mortars. Route 35 was damaged in the Lachish region and sealed off to traffic for hours by police.Southern police chief Cmdr. Yossi Prienti held an evaluation meeting on Saturday with representatives from the IDF including the Home Front Command, the Shin Bet (IsraelSecurity Agency) and Magen David Adom. The meeting concluded with a decision to maintain the increase in the number of emergency personnel in the South, many of whom were sent as reinforcements since the terrorist attacks near Eilat on Thursday.The reinforcements are meant to allow swift arrival at numerous rocket impact sites. All public events have been canceled.Police will continue increased patrols in Eilat and in the hotel area, and checkpoints will remain in the area to check all incoming traffic.On Friday morning, one person was seriously wounded, another moderately injured and five more lightly wounded when a Grad rocket struck in the courtyard of a yeshiva in Ashdod.The injured were on their way to morning prayers there.A second rocket attack saw a projectile strike a synagogue.The rocket became lodged in the synagogue’s roof but failed to detonate. Police bomb squad officers were forced to destroy the building to safely neutralize the explosive, and a bulldozer demolished the structure after holy items were removed.Five other people were treated for shock following the attack.All were taken to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.Click for full Jpost coverage
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