3-Nov-11: Raining rockets, and as always Israeli children are in the terrorists' sights

A family snapshot of Moshe Ami, killed
by Gazan Arab terrorists [source]. Father of 4,
grandfather of five, his death was almost completely
unreported outside Israel

Schools right across southern Israel were closed for the first three days of the school week, reopening yesterday (Wednesday). The decision to close down was taken in light of the intensive rocket attacks executed by the terrorist enemy forces based just the other side of Israel's border with the terrorism-addicted Hamas regime in Gaza.

Some 45 mortars and rockets were fired into Israel since the start of the week. They all originated in Gaza, and not one of them had a military objective. The goal of the terrorists was and is to attack civilians, the younger the better. Hence the defensive measures taken by the education ministry.

The degree of exposure suffered by about a half million Israeli residents of southern communities is frightening. Yisrael Hayom says this may soon change:

Many schools in southern towns and villages still lack protection from rocket attacks, a fact that was emphasized during an emergency meeting of the Knesset Education Committee on Tuesday. Col. Benny Shick, the Homefront Command's structural reinforcement chief, said that by the next school year, all educational institutions within 15 kilometers of Gaza would be protected. The estimated cost of the project is NIS 500 million.

From a distance, there is a numbing sameness about the reports of rockets fired on Israelis. Thousands of terrorist rocket firings have the character, over time, of sounding ordinary. They're not, certainly not if you live in the places they target.

Consider how things were just this past Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath: 26 incoming rockets and mortar shells in just one day, according to Ynet's count.

One man, Moshe Ami, 56, a resident of the southern city of Ashkelon which has come under rocket attack from the Gazan Arabs numerous times, was killed after sustaining shrapnel wounds in one of the rocket attacks while driving in his car. Another person was injured.