As US President George W. Bush arrived in Israel on Wednesday to push his peace agenda, Palestinian forces operating out of the Gaza Strip made known their feelings regarding peace with the Jewish state by firing 19 rockets at nearby Israeli towns.

During an early morning barrage, one rocket scored a direct hit on a home in the battered town of Sderot, destroying the bed of a young child just minutes after he had been pulled to safety by his mother. A number of people, including the young boy and his mother, were treated for shock following the attack.

In an attack later in the day, shrapnel from an exploding rocket lightly wounded one Israeli and sent numerous others into shock.

Israeli forces responded by targeting a Palestinian rocket crew that was in the process of attacking Israelis. Two of the terrorists were killed in the strike.

Meanwhile, residents of Sderot who spoke to Army Radio and Israel National News expressed outrage that far from enabling Israel to eliminate the terrorist threat to its citizens, Bush - the self-described leader of the global war on terror - has arrived in the region to encourage Palestinian terrorism by strong-arming Israel into additional land concessions.