Two rockets slam into Ashkelon, injuring one

The miracles continue, says MDA chairman; 21 rockets fired at other areas in the South.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
grad ashkelon 248.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
grad ashkelon 248.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Two rockets fired from Gaza slammed into residential areas in Ashkelon on Saturday, leaving one person moderately wounded, three people lightly hurt, and causing extensive damage to homes in the area. Four air-raid sirens rang out across the city to warn residents of the incoming projectiles before the first rocket slammed into a yard of a residential building, sending shrapnel flying in several directions and damaging the structure. A group of people were seated drinking alcohol in the area when the siren sounded. The majority fled indoors upon hearing the siren, though one person who was too intoxicated to vacate the scene remained outside, where he sustained shrapnel wounds to his knee and fractures to his elbow, Ashkelon Municipality Spokeswoman Anat Wienstein-Berkovitz said. She added that the intoxicated individual did not comply with Home Front Command directives on taking cover during an air-raid siren. Shortly afterwards, a second rocket struck a home that was empty, as it was undergoing renovations. "The miracles keep on coming for us," Magen David Adom Chairman Eli Bin told The Jerusalem Post. "There was no one home when the second rocket struck, that is a miracle," he added. "It could have been much worse." Nineteen people were treated by paramedics for shock in Ashkelon on Saturday. On Saturday evening, the Ashkelon Municipality scrapped a tentative plan to send high school students back to school in bomb shelters to prepare them for their matriculation exams. "After holding a situation analysis meeting this evening, we've concluded that it's too dangerous to send them back to school," Wienstein-Berkovitz said. By evening, Palestinians had fired 23 rockets at southern Israel. Two rockets were fired at Sderot, and one landed in an open area near Ashdod. No injuries were reported in those attacks. Meanwhile, as rescue officials face round-the-clock action in the South, the Judea and Samaria Rescue Service (Hatzala Yosh) donated NIS 380,000 worth of emergency equipment to local paramedics. The equipment included medical kits for emergency response teams and bomb shelters.