WarSclerotic

Grad rocket hits Ashkelon – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Rocket fired from Gaza explodes in southern city, causing a number of residents to suffer shock but no damage. Elderly woman also injured while taking cover. Residents tell Ynet blast was very loud. ‘Even my table shook,’ one says

Shmulik Hadad

A rocket thought to be of the Grad type exploded in southern Ashkelon Sunday, causing a number of bystanders to suffer shock. An elderly woman was also lightly injured while attempting to take cover. No damage was reported.

Security forces are searching for the rocket, which is believed to have exploded in the city’s southern industrial zone.

Residents were startled late Sunday by the rocket alarm, immediately followed by a loud explosion. “Even my table shook,” one resident told Ynet.

Another resident told Ynet, “We heard the alarm and went into the shelter, and just succeeded in closing the door when we heard a very loud blast. The whole building shook and I thought it must have fallen in our neighborhood.”

David Mahlof, who also resides in Ashkelon, told Ynet he was in the car with his family when the rocket hit. “We have a baby and as we were taking him out of the car we heard the blast, before we could get to a shelter. It was a miracle nothing happened to us,” he said.

Paramedics treated residents who suffered shock on the scene, and evacuated one woman to Barzilai Hospital.

Earlier in the day Ashkelon Municipality discussed whether or not to hold the traditional Purim parade celebrated throughout Israel, and decided to allow it. Residents were advised to keep alert, however.

Tensions have been rising on the Gaza border in recent days. Exchanges of fire between IDF soldiers and Palestinians were reported at around noon Sunday near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza.

During the fighting, Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at a Merkava 4 tank, which is equipped with the “Windbreaker” defense system. The system intercepted the missile, and IDF forces responded with artillery fire.

On Saturday, 49 mortar shells were fired into Israel from Gaza, prompting the IDF to strike several targets across the Strip. Two Israelis sustained light injuries from the mortar fire.

Syrian protesters torch Baath party headquarters.

The demonstrators also set ablaze the main courts complex and two phone company branches. One of the firms, Syriatel, is owned by President Bashar al-Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf.

“They burned the symbols of oppression and corruption,” an activist said. “The banks nearby were not touched.”

Earlier, Syrian security forces killed a protester in Deraa, residents said, as the authorities tried to contain three days of protests demanding freedoms and the release of political prisoners.

Raed al-Kerad was shot dead in the new part of Deraa, where gunfire is still being heard, residents said. He is the fifth civilian killed by security forces since protests against Syria’s ruling elite erupted in Deraa on Friday.

Thousands of Syrians demanded an end to 48 years of emergency law on Sunday. “No. No to emergency law. We are a people infatuated with freedom,” marchers chanted as a government delegation arrived in the southern town of Deraa to pay condolences for victims killed by security forces in demonstrations there this week.

Syria has been ruled under emergency law since the Baath Party, which is headed by President Assad, took power in a 1963 coup and banned all opposition.

The government sought to appease popular discontent in Deraa by promising to release 15 schoolchildren whose arrests for scrawling protest graffiti had helped fuel the demonstrations.

An official statement said the children, who had written slogans inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt on walls, would be released immediately. The statement was a rare instance of Syria’s ruling hierarchy responding to popular pressure.

Security forces opened fire on Friday on civilians taking part in a peaceful protest in Deraa demanding the release of the children, political freedoms and an end to corruption. Four people were killed.

On Saturday thousands of mourners called for “revolution” at the funeral of two of the protesters. Officials later met Deraa notables who presented then with a list of demands, most importantly the release of political prisoners.

The list demands the dismantling of the secret police headquarters in Deraa, dismissal of the governor, a public trial for those responsible for the killings and scrapping of regulations requiring permission from the secret police to sell and buy property. Non-violent protests have challenged the Baath Party’s authority this month, following the uprisings that toppled the autocratic leaders of Egypt and Tunisia, with the largest protests in Deraa drawing thousands of people.

The city is a centre of the Hauran region, once a bread basket that also been affected by diminishing water levels in Syria, with yields falling by a quarter in Deraa last year.

Deraa is also home to thousands of displaced people from eastern Syria, where up to a million people have left their homes because of a water crisis over the past six years. Experts say state mismanagement of resources has worsened the crisis.