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Commentary;
The two reports below are prototypical of the Olmert regime’s dire neglect of southern residents, whether they live in towns bordering Gaza or in urban areas such as Ashkelon.
For other blog posts regarding Regime neglect of Jews from Sderot, Ashkelon and the Negev, click here and here. MB
Gaza Periphery Schools Still Unprotected, by Dan Izenberg (Jerusalem Post)
Full Text;
The school year is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks and children of Sderot and Gaza periphery towns still do not have adequate protection from Kassam rockets.
The government and the High Court have yet to resolve a rift caused by a disagreement over potential fortifications to schools demanded by parents, teachers and municipal leaders who have threatened not to let the pupils go to classes.
Over a thousand students from the area have already left their schools to escape the constant threat of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
Despite a High Court order to fortify all classrooms in Sderot and the Gaza Strip periphery from grades four to the end of high school, the government has still not handed over the funding for the extra fortifications to the Home Front Command.
Gov’t ‘Defending’ Ashkelon with ‘Panic Button’ System
Full Text;
The Home Front Command is funding more than $100 million for the installation of a panic button system in pre-school nurseries and schools to make it easier to alert authorities in the event of a rocket attack on Ashkelon, where Arab terrorists recently have renewed rocket assaults. The port city is home to strategic sites, including oil and gas pipelines and a huge electric generating station.
Former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said at the time of the IDF withdrawal from Gaza two years ago that Israel would retaliate with force “even if one rocket” is fired against the country. After thousands of Kassam rockets and mortar shellings on Sderot, Ashkelon and the rest of the western Negev, the government has kept a low profile against terrorists except for the occasional targeting of cells and several hit-and-run arrest missions.
Intelligence officials have warned that Gaza-based terrorists have developed longer range rockets, including the Katyusha.