MIDDLE EAST: An Israeli toddler and a middle-aged man were killed yesterday morning outside a kindergarten in southern Israel by a rocket fired by Hamas from the nearby Gaza Strip - a bitter new twist after 45 months of conflict.
The deaths of Afik Zahavi Ohayon, whose mother, Ruthie, was badly wounded in the blast, and of Mr Mordechai Yosepov (49), came hours after an Israeli outpost in Gaza was blown to pieces and a soldier killed.
Shattering several weeks of relative calm inside Israel, the fatalities punctured what had been a fragile but growing sense in Israel of late that its military tactics, and especially the ongoing construction of the West Bank security barrier, were gradually quelling intifada attacks on Israeli targets.
While Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, reiterated that the fatal Qassam rocket fire at the southern city of Sderot would not affect his plans for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, right-wing critics of the planned pull-out, some of them from within Mr Sharon's Likud party, are intensifying their opposition, accusing him of overseeing a misguided capitulation to terrorism and predicting that much of southern Israel will come under incessant rocket fire from Gaza after the troops are gone.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack - the first instance, after more than 250 rockets fired across the Gaza border, in which such fire has proved fatal - and vowed to carry out many more. Along with Fatah, Hamas also claimed responsibility for blowing up the army outpost in the heart of Gaza on Sunday night - an attack involving a lengthy tunnel dug under the outpost, and the detonation of a colossal explosive charge that killed one soldier. It said the strikes were to avenge the deaths of several of its leaders, most especially Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, killed by Israel in recent weeks.
Four Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the past two days, three of them in clashes with Israelis, and the fourth a truck driver hit on a road through the Strip that had been closed to traffic.
The rocket that hit Sderot left a relatively small crater outside the kindergarten, but prompted a vast outpouring of grief and fear in the city, which has been hit by dozens of rockets in recent months. "This is now a town of fear, a town trembling a little," said Mayor Eli Moyal, adding that he had warned all along that it was only a matter of time before the rocket fire caused fatalities.
Afik, less than four years old, was hit just outside "Lilach's kindergarten" as he arrived for one of the last days of the school year; an end-of-year party had been scheduled for today. The rocket landed barely a pace away from him, eyewitnesses said. Sderot schools are to stay open for a few more weeks, as staff try to help children overcome the trauma.
Mr Sharon met with defence chiefs to discuss how to respond to the attacks. Israeli security chiefs have said recently that Israel might mount a military in- cursion into Gaza, similar to that in the West Bank in 2002.