May 16, 2007, 2:25 PM (GMT+02:00)
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The center is in charge of smuggling operations of men, weapons, explosives and missiles from Sinai to Gaza
Another 8 Qassam missiles were fired at Sderot, its environs and S. Ashkelon Wednesday, the second day of Hamas missile offensive against Israel. Tuesday night 20 missiles hit the town, injuring 30 people including a mother and three children
Schools in Sderot and neighboring Shear Hanegev were shut Wednesday and hundreds of women and children evacuated.
Tuesday night’s barrage was also aimed at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Alumim, Beeri, Kfar Aza and Netivot. A strategic installation hit in Ashkelon.
After the heaviest missile attack Sderot has ever sustained, Wednesday saw private initiatives to evacuate the beleaguered Negev town. After being battered from Gaza for seven years, Sderot still lacks bomb shelters and adequate protection.
Wednesday, a Hamas spokesman called for the “recovery of Sderot which was stolen together with the 1948 occupation of Palestinian lands.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources: Hamas, determined to prove it can fight on two fronts, turned its missiles against Israel amid bloody battles with Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential guard and security forces under Fatah command. His Fatah has joined the offensive against Israel to show it is not lagging behind the "resistance to the Zionist enemy."