IDF official: Sderot is like Iraq and Afghanistan for the US

Following the resumption of Kassam rocket attacks on southern Israel on Wednesday, Washington issued a directive according to which any US government official that travels to Sderot and other Gaza belt communities must travel in an armored vehicle in order to protect them from Kassam rocket attacks. Earlier Wednesday, a US Army colonel visited Sderot in an IDF armored vehicle. An IDF official told Army Radio that according to US regulations, Sderot "is like Iraq and Afghanistan" for the Americans. On Wednesday afternoon, Gaza terrorists fired four more Kassam rockets that hit open areas in the western Negev. It came after 10 rockets hit the region throughout Wednesday morning and early afternoon. No casualties or damage were reported in the attacks. On Tuesday, close to 10 rockets and mortar shells pounded the western Negev as Defense Minister Ehud Barak continued to call for an extension of a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "We are not deterred from an operation in Gaza but we are also not rushing into one," Barak said Tuesday on the sidelines of a military exercise in the Golan Heights. "Calm will be met by calm but if there is no choice we will act when and where we see fit."