By Stan Goodenough
Nov 15, 2006
An Israeli woman was killed and a man was critically wounded Wednesday morning when Muslim Arabs in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of Kassam rockets at civilian Jewish communities in Israel?s western Negev region.
The casualties were at home in a residential area of the battered town of S?derot. Eight people were treated for hysteria following the attacks.
A total of six rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip between 7 and 9 a.m. They followed a multiple rocket attack on downtown S?derot Tuesday night.
Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad claimed credit for Wednesday?s barrage. As in all cases of Kassam fire, Israeli civilians were the intended target.
In contrast to the massive effort mounted at the United Nations last week to condemn Israel for the accidental killing of Arab civilians in Gaza?s Beit Hanoun, no UN censure of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority is anticipated for this act of deliberate and cold-blooded murder.
Nor is the international media expected to make an outcry. The fact that the Palestinian side purposefully seeks to kill Israeli women and children does not appear to be of consequence to the almost universally pro-Palestinian press.
In response to the Wednesday morning assault, a Prime Minister?s Office spokesman said Israel would take ?whatever steps? it needed to ?to stop these attacks and defend our people.?
So far, all the IDF?s efforts to stop the Kassams have failed.