Shortly after Barak's pronouncements the relative respite in rocket attacks on southern Israel seemed over, with nine Qassam rockets and 13 mortar shells landing in and around communities in the western Negev.
Several weeks ago Eli Dahan's wife Ayelet just barely managed to run down to the family's bomb shelter with the couple's infant son seconds before a Qassam rocket crashed into his nursery.
"The siege on Gaza gave us some room to breathe," he said on Monday. "We thought to ourselves that maybe now Gaza's residents would pressure Hamas into stopping the rocket fire. But there you go, our government immediately retreated."
The family returned to their house this week, though the top floor has not yet been repaired. "We wanted to come back to restore some sense of routine for the children," said an outraged Dahan.
"We spent the evening with relatives and when we left to go home, the rocket alert sirens blared," he recalled, "we started running and ducked for cover behind a garbage container. I thought to myself how
we, the parents, must look to our children, running like this."
Alon Davidi, chairman of the Committee for a Secure Sderot, also expressed his disappointment with the defense minister's decision: "The rocket fire tonight is proof that Barak was too brash, he is a defense minister that lacks an understanding of this war on terror. Nothing could be more morally sound than cutting Gaza's power."
RSS
