Tags : :
Hours after a Grad-type Katyusha rocket slammed into an Ashkelon mall Wednesday evening, wounding more than a dozen people, Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised residents of the city that Israel will not suffer continued attacks without responding.
"You guys need to bite your lips, but not for [long]," Barak said during a tour of the scene.
"This incident is not simple, and proves that despite the hits that the Palestinians are sustaining in Gaza, they are still shooting," he said, adding that "if the rocket had hit a roof of a house, I would've been going to a funeral."
Fifteen people were wounded, including four seriously, by a Grad-model Katyusha rocket that hit a shopping center in Ashkelon just hours after US President George W. Bush arrived to celebrate the state's 60th anniversary on Wednesday.
The rocket, fired from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, struck the Hutzot Mall in southern Ashkelon, causing considerable damage. Several people were initially trapped under the rubble. The four people in serious condition included a 24-year-old woman and her young daughter. In addition, 87 people were treated for shock.
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." ~~John 15:5~~