Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired seven rockets into the southern Israel town of Sderot Monday morning, striking several targets, including a house adjacent to a day care center.
Following the impact just feet from the day care, Israeli soldiers rushed into the building and evacuated 15 children. Twelve of the youngsters were taken to a hospital in the nearby coastal city of Ashkelon to be treated for shock.
In other parts of Sderot, frightened parents quickly pulled their children out of local schools. They insist the children will not return to school until the government complies with a Supreme Court order to adequately fortify the buildings against Palestinian rocket attacks.
A day earlier, a defiant Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted that Sderot schools already had all the fortification they needed. Olmert is believed to be reluctant to fortify Sderot lest the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza that he helped execute be further revealed as a catastrophic error.
Many analysts note that fortifications in Sderot will only go so far, and that eventually the government will have to order a military invasion of Gaza in order to curb the rocket fire.