Damaged preschool
Photo: Lachish Regional Police
Revealed: Qassam fell in empty Sderot preschool during Obama visit
Two weeks after US president's visit, a partially-exploded rocket which penetrated roof found in Sderot preschool empty because of Passover recess
The rocket could have had devastating results and dramatically changed the current status quo in the south: Two weeks after US President Barack Obama's
visit,
it was discovered Tuesday that during his visit a rocket fired from Gaza had landed in a Sderot
preschool – penetrating the roof and only partially exploding.
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- Gaza vicinity communities demand peace
- Qassam fired from Gaza; structures damaged
The rocket made its way through the roof of Margalit's preschool in Sderot, which usually houses three year olds, and partially exploded.
According to estimates, it was fired from the Gaza Strip on March 21 - the day Obama gave his now famous Jerusalem speech – along with four other Qassam rockets fired at Sderot and the Gaza vicinity communities that day.
Video courtesy of jn1.tv
The projectile was only discovered Tuesday for the same reason it failed to cause causalities – school was out because of the Passover vacation.
The children are scheduled to return to the preschool on Wednesday. Staffers who arrived at the building Tuesday to prepare it for the children's arrival discovered a hole in the ceiling and a Qassam on the floor. They immediately alerted security officials.
On the same day IDF forces identified five rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip, however, they thought only two had successfully landed in Israeli territory.
Qassam in Sderot (Photo: Roee Idan)
According to the IDF, five rockets were fired from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, after a relatively long period of calm following Operation Pillar of Defense.
One of the rockets exploded in the courtyard of a Sderot house, another fell in an open area, and the other two were assumed to have landed in Palestinian territory, as was the fifth. However, Tuesday it turned out that the fifth had in fact landed in the preschool.
Sarah Haziz, whose house was hit by the Qassam, recalls how the alarm caught her off guard while she was cleaning it.
"The house was full of water, I managed to lift my eight-year-old daughter to the sheltered area, but I was still outside when I heard the explosion.
"I knew the explosion was from my house. We've grown accustomed, it wasn't the first time we've been hit."
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