2 Qassams land in Sderot Sunday evening
Rockets hit two different neighborhoods in southern town. One hits gas pipe; several people treated for shock. Another eight rockets fired from Gaza in past 24 hours; resident sustains moderate to serious wounds
Two rockets landed in two different neighborhoods. One of the rockets hit a gas pipe and several people were treated for shock. Another rocket landed next to a kibbutz.
Several youths in a nearby neighborhood set fire to a tire, apparently in protest of the ongoing fire. Police forces were dispatched to the area, put out the fire and cleared the road.
Liat, a Sderot resident, told Ynet this was the third time a rocket landed near her home Sunday.
"What is going on here is crazy. The Qassam explosion was about 40 second after the warning. I woke up with the children and then I heard a loud explosion. The area next to our house has already turned into a landmine because of the Qassams falling here all the time. We cannot live like this."
Asked why she and her family members did not leave for Eilat along with thousands of the city residents, she responded: "We are working people, therefore we cannot leave the city."
Odelia Peretz also spoke about life in the shadow of ongoing rocket barrages fired at the city.
"We heard an alarm and landings immediately afterwards. We saw smoke and then ambulances and police drove toward the landings. We are scared, every alarm causes trauma to the children. The children are terrified," she said.
Residents continue to flee to Eilat
Another eight Qassam rockets were fired at the western Negev on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Five of the rockets landed in the Sderot area, several of them in the heart of the city.
One of the residents was moderately to seriously wounded and two were injured by shrapnel. Several other residents suffered from shock.
The injured were evacuated to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
A commotion broke out in the center of the city, and some of the business owners rushed to shut down their stores for fear of additional landings.
Sderot resident Meit Cohen said, "I heard the whistle. There was a very loud explosion, I went downstairs and we again saw the horrors left by Hamas: Broken windowpanes and blood stains of the injured."
Meanwhile, many residents continue to leave the city for Eilat. A sizeable commotion erupted in downtown Sderot Sunday afternoon after hundreds of residents tried to secure seats on buses headed towards Eilat.
Business mogul Arcadi Gaydamak, who has stepped forward to pick up the tab for the transport and accommodation of the town's rocket refugees, ordered to send more buses to the town and allocated funds for hundreds of additional hotel rooms. Sderot officials estimate that the mass exodus of residents will continue over the coming days.
