Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, right, arrives at a bomb scene to report for Pajamas TV, after a rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip, hit a house next to a school in the Israeli southern city of Sderot, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009.

Jerusalem Post:

Palestinians continued to fire rockets at Israel on the 16th day of Operation Cast Lead, even during a three-hour humanitarian cease-fire. Throughout the day Sunday, Gaza terrorists had fired at least 14 rockets at southern Israel.

In the latest attack, a rocket struck an Ashdod kindergarten, causing no casualties as the building was empty at the time. Significant damage was caused to the structure, and three people were being treated for shock.

Earlier in the afternoon, two Kassam rockets were fired at Sderot. One landed near a school in the town, sending numerous people into shock and causing damage.

Rockets also landed in Kiryat Malachi, Asheklon, and the Eshkol region.

On Sunday morning, as schools were reopening in Beersheba, residents were reminded of their precarious position when a Grad rocket slammed into a car, lightly wounding two people and sending three people into shock.

Israelis gather around a car after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Beersheba, Sunday.

A rocket also hit an electric pole in the city, a third landed in an open area in the Sdot Negev region and another struck the Netivot area. No one was wounded.

IAF planes later hit the launcher used to fire the Grad rockets at Beersheba.

The Home Front Command had given local authorities in the South the green light to gradually reopen schools this week and Beersheba students studying for their matriculation exams were to return to classes on Sunday morning.

Col. Yitzhak Eitan, head of the Home Front Command’s Southern District, said a situation analysis found that the threat of rocket attacks had decreased, and that air raid sirens in cities such as Beersheba were now fully functional.

Not all schools would reopen at once, Eitan stressed, saying that some lessons would be held in bomb shelters, while others would be held only in school buildings approved by Home Front Command officials.

Schools with a reinforced, rocket-proof roof, or with a safe room near to pupils could reopen, Eitan said.

The Ashkelon Municipality decided to keep schools shut on Sunday, after two rockets slammed into residential areas, moderately wounding one person.

“We have approved the opening of the schools gradually… it is up to the local councils to decide when this should happen,” Eitan said. Sderot would resume a full school day on Sunday, Eitan added, while regional councils such as Netivot and Eshkol would begin the week with a “minimal” school day. Children would also drill evacuating their class rooms, Eitan added.

The Home Front Command was keen to gradually return life in southern Israel to normal, he stressed. As for the North, an Education Ministry spokesman for the region told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night that everything had returned to normal and that school would be held as scheduled throughout the region. He spoke after a meeting of local authorities in Nahariya and Shlomi to assess the situation for the upcoming week, following the firing of Katyushas into the Galilee on Thursday.