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Sderot Children Feel Truce Relief

[BBC News] Heather Sharp - Tal, 7, says she is excited to be going back to school in the Israeli town of Sderot, and says she is not afraid of the Palestinian Kassam rockets. Since June, a truce between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel has brought the number of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza down from more than 50 on some of the worst days, to one every few days. Tal and the other children in her second grade class know the drill perfectly. As soon as the "Code Red" siren sounds, they have 15 seconds to rush to a secure classroom or concrete shelter. "If there isn't enough time, we get under the desks," Tal says. Even so, says her mother Roha, the tension remains. "I was once parked in town and just as I reversed, a rocket hit exactly where I had been parked," she said. Another parent, Michel, points out marks in the tarmac, a few meters from the school, where a rocket struck last February, hitting 8-year-old Osher Twito, who lost his leg. Most Sderot residents believe it is just a matter of time before the rocket fire returns.
2008-09-04 01:00:00
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