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The "caravilla" after the rocket hit.
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 4, 2006 |
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IDF mortars pounded empty fields in northern Gaza, throwing up dirt and making very big noises, in the fiercest Israeli response in weeks to the daily stream of rockets being fired from the Palestinian territories into Israel. The escalation came after a Kassam destroyed a mobile home in the Kibbutz of Kramiya, causing serious head wounds to an infant and light to moderate injuries to three other family members.
Upon arriving, an ambulance driver discovered that the injured family members were his relatives, and the baby was his grandson. The wounded were evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva and Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
Four members of the Amar family were wounded in the attack, including their seven-month-old son Osher. The infant sustained a head wound when thrown from his crib by the blast. Initially, he was listed in serious condition, but later improved to "moderate to light" after he he regained consciousness and doctors managed to absorb all of his cranial bleeding, Israel Radio reported.
The family was sitting inside their caravilla when the rocket fell outside their home. The combination of the home's thin cardboard walls, and the force of the rocket that was packed with explosives and shrapnel caused extensive damage to the home.
The army's response will be "harsh, intensive and ongoing," a senior IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post, and will not be restricted to artillery response but also from the air. The army has no choice but to intervene and step up its response due to the failure of the Palestinian Authority to act and halt the Kassam rocket attacks on Israel, the officer said. "Our response will be sharp and hard, and will focus on the Islamic Jihad in particular and any other terror organization that opts to attack us," the officer said.
There are unconfirmed reports that ants and worms in the open fields of northern Gaza are cowering in fear at the "sharp and hard" Israeli campaign being threatened.
The IDF Spokesperson's Office told IMRA this evening that the IDF artillery fire in response to the Kassam attacks has been limited to shelling open fields and that the army would not target PA civilian areas.
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, speaking at a Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on January 4, said that Israel was unable to act effectively against rocket attacks launched towards Sderot because they are launched from within Palestinian civilian areas. He stopped short of issuing a formal invitation to Palestinians terrorists to launch rockets at will from within the protection of civilian areas.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the family had been expelled from the former settlement of Nisanit in northern Gaza, but IMRA said the family members were not settlers expelled from Gaza by Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" campaign. The father of the family, IMRA reported, provides services to the expellees.
Doctors reported on Saturday an improvement in the medical condition of a seven-month old baby wounded in Friday night's Qassam rocket attack, Haaretz noted.
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Likud said Friday evening that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz are abandoning the citizens of the State of Israel.
MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) said Olmert's government must understand that the time has come to protect residents of the south before lives are lost, Haaretz reported.
Palestinians fired two more Kassam rockets toward Ashkelon on Friday afternoon, one of which hit the southern Ashkelon industrial zone, damaging a fence and a water company structure.
The usual spokesman in the Prime Minister's Office made the usual verbal chiding of the Palestinian Authority, mouthing that it remained responsible for stopping such attacks.
"This was a brutal attack on an Israeli family on Sabbath's eve. The Palestinian Authority can not and will not be allowed to shirk its responsibility for preventing such attacks. It continues to not take any discernable steps to prevent such attacks against Israelis," David Baker uttered.
This is the first Kassam attack to have injured Israelis since the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections last week.
Several weeks ago the IDF declared the northern Gaza Strip a closed military zone, in a bid to limit the rocket fire. which has a range of only several kilometers. Despite initially curbing down the number attacks toward Ashkelon, Palestinians have since resumed firing the rockets at the Western Negev in recent weeks.
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