Rocket lands near Sderot gas station
No injuries reported in attack on southern town; Sderot mayor: Disaster averted, luck was again on our side
The latest attack follows a six-rocket barrage fired at the Sderot vicinity the previous night. Earlier Tuesday, the IDF directed artillery fire at Gaza targets in response to the Qassam attacks.
Fortunately, only two security guards were present at the gas station at the time of the attack. The rocket landed on the road leading into the station and damaged the pavement. Sderot's Deputy Police Commander Yehiel Buhadana said the Qassam landed near the station's storage tanks, which are located underground.
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told Ynet: "A major disaster was averted, and again luck was on our side. I don't want to think what would have happened had the rocket, God forbid, landed inside the station, blowing up fuel tanks at the site."
IDF operation 'not effective solution'
Sderot residents and Moyal himself claimed in recent days that the IDF's "Blue Skies" operation was not an effective solution to the Qassam fire on the region.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has himself admitted Tuesday that the operation does not provide a solution to the Qassam fire directed at Sderot, bur rather, is aimed predominantly at defending Ashkelon, due to the close proximity of sensitive strategic facilities to the city.
Speaking at a Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, Halutz said the decision to launch the operation was made following the recent Qassam attacks on Ashkelon, adding that the operation’s goal is to reduce high-trajectory fire, but it cannot stop it entirely.
The committee's Chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that "Operation ‘Blue Skies’ offers a partial solution to the Qassam fire directed at Ashkelon, and no solution to Qassam attacks on Sderot.”
