7-Apr-11: Rocket strikes Israeli school bus, critically injuring boy

Ynet is reporting that a 16-year boy was critically injured this afternoon (Thursday) after a bus driving in the Sha'ar Hanegev region was hit by a 'smart' (guided) anti-tank missile rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. Haaretz says the driver of the bus was also hurt. (Reuters reports that it was a mortar - they are wrong.) The Jerusalem Post says the boy and the driver were the only people on board in the attack which came in the vicinity of Kibbutz Saad. Hanania Reich, a paramedic who arrived on the scene, recounts. 

“We were first to arrive together with soldiers. On the road lay a young victim, unconscious and bleeding. We began to resuscitate him and eventually MDA came and evacuated him by helicopter.”

Immediately after the attack on the bus, additional mortars were fired into the area from the same Gazan sources and residents have been instructed to stay inside buildings. This attack comes some hours after the IAF scored direct hits on three smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza and one in the northern area of the Strip early this morning in response to Gazan-Palestinian-Arab anti-tank missiles fired into Israel.