Rocket Claims another Life

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau

May 27, 2007

CBNNews.com - SDEROT, Israel - Early Sunday morning, a Kassam rocket attack from the Gaza Strip took the life of a man sitting in his car, injured another and sent several more residents into shock.

A little before 7:00 a.m., as children waited for the school bus, the siren signaling an incoming rocket sounded in the western Negev city of Sderot.

Nearby, the rocket exploded, catapulting the car into a wall. Oshri Oz, 36, later died of his injuries at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. Oz, a resident of Hod HaSharon who was in Sderot on business, is survived by his wife, who is pregnant, and a two-year-old daughter.

This is the second rocket-related fatality in Sderot in less than a week. Last Tuesday, 32-year-old Shirel Friedman bled to death en route to the hospital from her wounds.

Three other rockets hit the city Sunday morning, one damaging a community center. No one was injured in these attacks.

Saturday, Palestinian terrorists launched 10 Kassams on southern Israel. In the evening, one Sderot resident was injured by shrapnel when a rocket exploded close to his home. A second rocket landed near another apartment complex. And another direct hit did extensive damage to a building, sending several people into shock.

Nonetheless, the majority of Sderot's residents say they will not reward the terrorists by abandoning their homes and evacuating the city. Numbers of residents who left the city last week for a respite from the daily rocket attacks have returned to their homes.

Israel Continues Air Strikes

Meanwhile, the Israel Air Force destroyed a Hamas security post in Sheik Raduan in Gaza. There were no injuries.

Two Palestinians were injured in an attack on a Hamas post in the Jabalya refugee camp near the home of Abu Obaid al-Jarrah, an Hamas special forces commander.

Over the past 10 days, 50 Palestinians have been killed in air strikes on security posts, weapons warehouses and other strategic Hamas facilities. The majority of those who died in the attacks were actively involved in terrorist activities.

Shooting Attack in Jerusalem

On Saturday evening around 8:00 p.m., two gunmen ambushed an Israeli security patrol in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Said, close to Armon Hanatziv, a Jewish neighborhood, on the southeastern end of the city. The attack took place near the security fence erected to keep suicide bombers from entering the city.

Police later identified the gunmen as Mohammed Shakirat, 23, and Mahmoud Naji Halaseh, 23, Arab residents of East Jerusalem, whose Israeli identity cards allowed them free movement inside Israel.

One of the men in the patrol, a 26-year-old border policeman, was critically injured by bullet wounds to the chest, while his partner, a security guard, was hit in the limbs. The wounded men managed to return fire, killing the attackers and one passerby caught in the crossfire.

The al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack.

'No one is immune'

At Sunday morning's Cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel will continue to act against anyone involved in planning or carrying out terror attacks.

"I want to emphasize," said Olmert, "that no one involved in terror will be immune."

Since May 15, Palestinian terrorist have fired some 250 Kassam rockets on communities in southern Israel, causing death, property damage and disrupting normal life in Sderot.

In Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Israel has taken 33 Hamas politicians into custody for questioning in security-related matters.

While the U.S. State Department criticized the arrests, spokesman Tom Casey acknowledged that "Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization engaged in ongoing attacks against Israel."

Sources: YNet news service, The Jerusalem Post, The Associated Press

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