More Rockets Fall into Israel from Gaza

Nadene Goldfoot

The picture above is of Be'er Sheva which recent rockets barely missed. The top picture is of Qassam rockets being fired from Gaza.

On Monday, Israel time, 3 Israelis were killed and 31 wounded in Ashkelon with a population of 111,700, Ashdod with a population of 211,300, Nahal Oz and Sderot and Neterot. Also hit was Ofakim and Yavne. A grad rocket with the range of 25 miles fell in Ofakim, which is in southern Israel, 20 km from Be'er Sheva. It has a population of 24,800 as of 2008. People live there from North Africa, India, Russia and Ethiopia. Yavne is in Central Israel, only 12.43 miles south of Jaffa and 9.32 miles north of Ashdod. Being Israel is very narrow, it is 4.35 miles east of the Mediterranian Sea. It has a population of over 31,800.

According to the IDF, as of October 7th there were 163 rockets including a Qassam and mortars that fell into Israel. In January there were 27 including 16 Qassams, February had 6 Qassams, March 29 including 24 Qassams, April 12 including 5 Qassams, May 14 including 11 Qassams, June 16 of which 15 were Qassams, July 16 including 9 Qassams, August 13 including 6 Qassams, September 30 including 14 Qassams making a total of 106 Qassams, 50 mortars, 7 Grads which makes the 163.

At the same time, Israeli Arabs were rioting, even in Jerusalem. This is a double whammy, attacking Israel from Gaza and within. Even so, Israel kept trucks with aid going into Gaza as a normal condition.

Jews living in Judea and Samaria have been enduring rock throwing at them while driving. Two people were badly injured from this recently.

950,000 Israelis live within range of rocket, mortar and grad attacks. The highest population is Be'er Sheva, where 531,000 civilians have 60 seconds to find shelter when the alarm rings. Israel only has 7.3 million which includes over a million Israeli Arabs. Think of Portland, Oregon being attacked with our population of 566,141 civilians. If you only had 60 seconds to run for shelter, you wouldn't stray very far from it. Try driving to a supermarket. You just hope you know where their bomb shelter is and can get to it fast if need be.

From 2001 to January 09, 8,600 rockets have been shot into Israel. Qassam rockets are crude short range rockets that reach anywhere from 2 to 3 miles. They are a steel artillery rocket. At first they only reached Sderot in southern Israel, then were able to go farther and reach Ashkelon. Ashkelon is Portland's sister city, the city containing the hospital that the whole area depends on. Katusha and grad rockets have hit Ashdod and now Be'er Sheva. The Palestinians use them to attack civilians in Israel who only have a 15 to 45 second warning, depending on what city is going to be hit.

Every apartment building has its own bomb shelter. So do all the schools. The trick is to get there fast. The biggest trick of all is to maintain a normal daily life amid such a threat, and that is something Israelis have learned to do. This shows that Israel is extremely important to them. They know they are fighting to keep their 63 year old country as it's something we've all yearned for in the past 2,000 years. They're fighting to keep the mother religion, Judaism and the country Jews are bound to; Israel.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129108

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=196072
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101119/wl_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgaza
http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/11/20/in-response-to-intensive-rocket-fire-iaf-targets-smuugling-tunnel-in-the-gaza-strip-20-nov-2010/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket