Angered by rockets, Israelis weigh response

Israel's military named its offensive in the northern Gaza Strip against Palestinian rocket launchers earlier this month Autumn Clouds. But with Qassam missile salvos landing seemingly unabated in this nearby Israeli town, residents have come up with a different moniker: Clouds of Dust.

The sarcasm reflects local frustration at years of rocket fire that has shaken Sderot residents, despite a relatively small casualty toll. Though border fences and army checkpoints have enabled Israel to limit suicide bombing to pre-intifada levels, such defenses are useless against the crude missiles.

Now, with one Israeli dead and two critically injured from Qassam rocket fire on Wednesday, Israelis are debating whether stopping the rocket fire is an exercise in futility. The difficulty of the underlying problem – how to neutralize hundreds of small rockets easily hidden amid a civilian population – was underscored this summer by Israel's inability to stop Hizbullah's short-range Katyushas in southern Lebanon.

"The Palestinians have us in a half nelson," says Michael Oren, a fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute. "They can shell us, and we can't get back at them."

According to Israeli army figures, more than 1,000 Qassam rockets have been fired into Israel in the last year, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. On Thursday morning, three rockets from Gaza fell on Sderot. Palestinian militants said the attacks are retaliation for the killing of more than 20 civilians last week in the northern Gaza village of Beit Hanoun by Israeli artillery shells.

"We're at the point of no return," says Alon Davidi, a Sderot leader who staged a hunger strike earlier this year to protest the government's lack of a solution. "Either the state starts taking care of our security, or we'll start leaving Sderot."

Wednesday's attack has ratcheted up pressure on the government to order an all-out offensive in Gaza reminiscent of the 2002 Operation Defensive Shield push into Palestinian cities in the West Bank. Advocates of an incursion say Israel must reoccupy a corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border to block smuggling of weapons with longer firing ranges and improved precision.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cast doubt on the effectiveness of such an operation, pointing out that Defensive Shield by itself didn't reduce militant bombings. "We have to remember that this war will not be over in one blow," he said.

The Israeli media have carried intelligence assessments warning that Palestinian militants are arming themselves with antitank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as unmanned attack aircraft.

"We're waiting for the worst to come," said Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal a day before the deadly attack. "One day we will miss those Qassam rockets because there are other weapons in the Gaza Strip."

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