3-Jan-14: Thursday rocket attack from Gaza again but the living in southern Israel's Gaza-fringe communities remains good

Anemone coronaria flowers brighten the landscape in
Sdot Negev's Shokeda desert fields [Image Source: Wikipedia] 

A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip exploded in the Western Negev region of southern Israel early Thursday evening. Algemeiner says it crashed into an open area in the Sdot Negev region, part of the northwestern corner of the Negev desert. Sdot Negev is home to sixteen communities: two kibbutzim (Alumim and Sa'ad), 12 moshavim and two communal settlements.

No injuries or damage are reported. Israeli military aircraft quickly attacked and destroyed by direct hits what the IDF termed "terror infrastructure" in the central Gaza Strip "and three concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip".

A recent Haaretz article ["Ninety percent of new residents say good school system and rural environment brought them to southern Israel"] focusing on Israeli life in the desert settlements of Sdot Negev quotes the head of the local council praising the constructive outlook of the region's residents who cope daily with being on the doorstep of uncivilized neighbours:

"We don't make a big deal of every Qassam that falls. We don't try to create an atmosphere of despair and misfortune, but rather to convey a sense of a strong society". 

The article notes that the "rocket-battered" Sdot Negev communities have experienced a 55 percent increase in population numbers since 2007, notwithstanding what Israelis likes to call "security issues". Sdot Negev, despite being a stone's throw from the squalor and Islamist passions of Gaza, attracts new residents via a good school system and a notably pleasant rural environment. This, understandably, enrages the Gazan jihadists and their Iranian masters.