Sderot's downfall is downfall of Zionist enterprise, says mayor

'If you want to strengthen this city, it should be filled – not emptied,' Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal tells MKs visiting rocket-stricken city following attack which killed one man Sunday morning

Yael Branovsky|Published: 05.27.07 , 13:30

"Sderot's downfall is the downfall of the entire Zionist enterprise," Mayor Eli Moyal warned Knesset members visiting the rocket-stricken city on Sunday.

"If you want to strengthen this city, it should be filled – not emptied," he added.

Lethal Rocket

Man killed in Qassam attack on Sderot

Yael Branovsky

At least three Qassams land in southern town on Sunday morning. Oshri Oz, 36, seriously injured as rocket lands near his car, dies of his wounds at hospital; another person lightly hurt and several people suffer from shock. Earlier, Qassam causes damage to community center

Man killed in rocket attack on Sderot

One man, 36-year-old Oshri Oz of Hod Hasharon, was killed Sunday morning in the southern town after a rocket landed near the car in which he was sitting. He was the ninth person to lose his life in Sderot since Palestinians began firing Qassam rockets at southern Israel in 2001.

The town's residents, many of whom have left the city, have complained about the government's "helplessness," particularly in terms of building fortifications.

Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, who moved his office to Sderot, told the cabinet meeting on Sunday morning that the IDF's operation in Gaza was not enough to prevent the rocket fire.

"It doesn't make sense that the military activity focuses on 'targeted killings' and Sderot and Gaza vicinity residents are paying the price," he said. "Without creating significant deterrence, we will continue to be hit by Qassams. Life is peaceful in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya – 3 kilometers away from Sderot and Yad Mordechai."

Lebanon War's lessons

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss also visited Sderot on Sunday for a meeting of the Knesset's State Control Committee. Addressing his report on the fortifications of buildings in the city, he said that "those who read the report saw before their eyes the failures we found here, which cannot be swept under the carpet."

The committee's chairman, MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party-National Union) compared the situation to the Second Lebanon War, saying that "although the State of Israel has experience with suffering, it appears that not much has been learned."

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told the cabinet meeting that in 2006 the Defense Ministry had decided to invest NIS 40 million (about $9.88 million) in the examination and development of an Israeli defense system which would provide an answer to rocket attacks both in Sderot and the Gaza vicinity and across Israel.

"There is no contradiction between an effective and passive fortification. The system is part of a larger project which will meet the needs of the entire State of Israel," he added.

As he left the meeting, Sneh said that the Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip "did not start in the morning and will not stop this evening. This is an ongoing operation, and its strength and effectiveness lie in our persistence. A different target is attacked every few hours, whether it’s a machined manned or being used by Hamas or a Qassam launcher being destroyed."

Addressing the possibility that the IDF would enter the Strip with ground forces, Sneh said that "entering is not an escalation, but another way to reach our goal. At the moment our entry is very limited and we are focusing on an aerial war which has killed 160 Hamas members."