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Rocket from Gaza hits Sderot home; Iron Dome fails to intercept, IDF confirms

The residents, including a nine-month-old baby, were unharmed.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed on Friday that the Iron Dome missile defense system failed to intercept a Palestinian rocket which struck a house in Sderot overnight.

The residents — a mother and her nine-month-old daughter — were in a protected room and unharmed when the rocket struck.

Terrorists in Gaza fired 44 rockets at southern Israel on Thursday night. According to the Israeli military, eight were intercepted by the Iron Dome, 14 landed harmlessly in open areas and 12 landed in the Mediterranean.

A separate barrage of 34 rockets were fired from Lebanon.

Israel blamed Hamas for both barrages and retaliated with air strikes against the terror organization’s sites in southern Lebanon and Gaza.

The IDF said it destroyed several tunnels and weapons production facilities belonging to Hamas inside Gaza. It did not specify the nature of the targets struck in Lebanon.

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi called on the government to take a more forceful approach against Hamas to restore Israeli deterrence.

‘No dead terrorists in Gaza’

“We must put it on the table — there are no dead terrorists in Gaza,” Davidi said. “This means that this policy of granting immunity to terrorists who are making our lives miserable is continuing. I understand that the reality is complicated because this is happening in Lebanon and in our area, but this rocket isn’t the first. For months, we have been in a reality of ‘trickles’ [of rocket fire].”

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The mayor added, “To change this equation, we must do other things. It’s time for the government and the prime minister to adopt a policy of eliminating them.”

Sderot is one kilometer from the Gaza border. The town’s 30,000 residents have 7-15 seconds to reach a safe room when a when a warning siren is triggered. Since 2004, thousands of rockets have landed on the city, killing 11 Israelis.

A 2022 study by the Jerusalem-based Herzog Hospital Psychotrauma Center found that 45 percent of Sderot’s children between the ages 2-6 suffer from trauma.