The Cabinet on Sunday approved a proposal by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to upgrade the southern Israeli city of Sderot and its surrounds, and to build a new hospital in Be’er Sheva.

The NIS 1.3 billion five-year plan was created by a team of ministry director-generals led by PMO director Harel Locker. It is the largest and most comprehensive economic development plan ever made for the area, according to a release from the prime minister’s office.

The plan supplements the government’s July 13 decision to allocate NIS 417 million in economic benefits to the area adjacent to Gaza in 2015-2016. Approximately half of that sum is dedicated to Sderot.

“This is the largest investment that the State of Israel has ever made in this area,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “This is in addition to the NIS 417 million that we transferred during Operation Protective Edge. We are developing a new industrial zone in Sderot, transportation infrastructure in the area and are encouraging young people and students to move to the area adjacent to Gaza.

“We came to this country to build and to be built. We came to this part of our land in order to build and be built in it, and no one will uproot us. We will strengthen our hold and our development of this area just as in other areas,” the prime minister said.

“On Tuesday we will submit for Cabinet approval a supplement regarding an approximately NIS 2 billion in additional funds for the communities and cities of the south,” Netanyahu continued.

“In the framework of this decision, we will build a new hospital in Be’er Sheva, in addition to the hundreds of additional beds for the existing Soroka Medical Center.

“We will connect new natural gas infrastructures for the benefit of factories in the south. We will invest in initiatives to connect the Negev in the framework of the Digital Israel program.

“We will encourage small and mid-size businesses. We will develop tourism and all aspects of life, including the important ‘cyber’ aspect for all residents of the Negev, including Bedouin.

“This is a deep commitment on our part. I think that it has found expression.”

It appears that last December’s unprecedented snowstorm produced August babies.

Hospitals throughout Israel noticed a baby boom last month, nine months after a month of a wicked early winter storm that flooded parts of the country and left a blanket of snow in much of the north and center of the country, bringing many areas to a standstill.

Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot reported 700 births took place this August compared with 500 births last year.

The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where women gave birth in a delivery room reinforced against rockets, saw 1,484 births compared with 1,300 the previous year. Most of the new-born babies, as usual, were Bedouin.

“There were a few days in December that we couldn’t leave the house because of the storm, so it was a great opportunity to work on making a baby,” new mother Oxana Belayev told Ynet

What will summer rocket fire bring? Check back with us in nine months.

The Israeli firm SodaStream, which has been a target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, is considering closing its factory in Maaleh Adumim when its spanking new plant north of Be’er Sheva begins operation next year.

CEO Daniel Birnbaum told the Israeli economic publication The Marker that the company, which makes home soft drink machines, will make a decision in the next two months.

Birnbaum said the decision would be based solely on economics.

“The considerations will be purely financial, and do not include the European boycott on manufacturing in the territories,” he told the Marker. “Nor will they include the various calls to boycott products of the company because of its location in Maaleh Adumim. The boycott is a nuisance, but does not cause serious financial damage. We are not giving in to the boycott. We are Zionists.”

Birnbaum is not throwing a spin on a possible move out of Maaleh Adumim. The Negev plant is being built almost adjacent to a new interchange of Israel’s high-speed north-south Kvish 6 highway. The new location places SodaStream within an hour from Ben Gurion Airport.

The company could consolidate its operations in whole or in part from the Maaleh Adumim plant. SodaStream also has plants in Ashkelon, the Galilee and 20 others around the world.

It already fired between 100 and 200 workers at the Maaleh Adumim plant, where most of its 1,100 employees are Arabs from Israel and Judea and Samaria.

The plant in the Negev will employ a considerable number of Bedouin.

The company was in the news following the signing of actress Scarlett Johansson as a spokeswoman and the ensuing controversy over its West Bank factory. Johansson resigned as a global ambassador for Oxfam over her position with SodaStream.

A 70-year-old man and his wife paid the price for age and the lack of shelter within immediate reach on Saturday night when they had to make a run for it in a Grad missile attack on Be’er Sheva from Gaza.

Two Grad missiles exploded on an apartment building in a residential neighborhood in the Negev city as the older couple was rushing to reach a shelter, having heard the Code Red incoming rocket alert siren.

But they weren’t quite fast enough, and the missiles hit the building before the couple was able to reach shelter.

They were both hit by flying shrapnel in the explosion. Magen David Adom medics treated them on the scene and then evacuated the couple to nearby Soroka Medical Center, both with light wounds, and listed at present in good condition.

Nine other people suffered trauma symptoms; numerous others suffered with anxiety.

According to a tweet posted by Israel Hatzolah on the Twitter social networking site, the third Grad missile landed directly on a car, and not in an open area as reported by some media.

Car hit by Grad missile in Be’er Sheva, August 23, 2014.

Much further north, a Katyusha rocket was launched at Israel from southern Lebanon at about the same time. The rocket slammed into an empty home in a community in the Upper Galilee. Two five-year-old children were injured in the attack; both were taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds.

Eight others were also taken to hospital to be treated for shock. Another 13 people were treated on site for anxiety and trauma, according to local security personnel.

It is not yet clear which terrorist organization was responsible for the attack, but Lebanese authorities have tracked the source of the rocket fire to the town of Dheira, in southern Lebanon.

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system intercepted one missile over Gush Dan in the central region, two missiles over the Shfela region — also in central Israel — and two Qassam rockets that were headed straight for Sderot, barely a mile away from Gaza.

More than 100 missiles and rockets were fired at Israeli civilians from Gaza over the past 24 hours, striking communities from as far south as the Gaza Belt to the greater Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas.

Gaza terrorists returned to ‘business as usual’ launching rocket and missile attacks against Israel late Tuesday afternoon.

It’s the 11th time Hamas has violated an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, due to end at midnight.

A barrage of missile fire was aimed at Ashdod and communities along the Gaza border Tuesday evening, with all of the missiles landing in open areas.

No one was physically injured in any of the attacks, but many were traumatized and even more were “absolutely” outraged to find themselves and their children under rocket fire while they believed a cease-fire was in force and negotiations were underway.

A few minutes after 6:30 pm, two missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, indicating they were both headed directly for densely populated areas.

But the cease-fire had already been violated more than an hour earlier.

The first attack came in a barrage of Grad missiles aimed at Be’er Sheva and Netivot — a surprise not anticipated by residents who were not warned by the Code Red incoming rocket alert system, which malfunctioned.

Two missiles landed in open areas on the outskirts of Be’er Sheva, and a third exploded in Netivot. Miraculously, no one was physically injured and no property damage was reported.

Within half an hour, at about 5:30 pm, a rocket was fired at civilians living in the Sdot Negev Regional Council district. They, too were given no warning since the Code Red system was not triggered by the launch from Gaza, yet no one was injured in the attack.

A multiple barrage was fired shortly after, targeting the coastal city of Ashkelon and aiming again at the agricultural communities located along the Gaza Belt area, most of which provide food to markets in greater Israel.

“Operation Protective Edge is not over,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned journalists during a meeting at the IDF Naval Academy on Monday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He was right.

Israel Air Force fighter pilots took to the skies to retaliate immediately following the first cease-fire violation.

“Following renewed rocket attacks at Israel… amidst the ceasefire, the IDF is currently targeting terror sites across the Gaza Strip,” IDF Spokesperson Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement to media.

“The IDF remains alert and maintains both defensive and striking capabilities in order to address the renewed aggression. The IDF is determined to defend the civilians of the State of Israel. Yet again, terrorists breach the ceasefire and renew fire at Israeli civilians from Hamas ruled Gaza Strip. This continued aggression will be addressed accordingly by the IDF.

“We will continue striking terror infrastructure, pursuing terrorists, and eliminating terror capabilities in the Gaza Strip, in order to restore security for the State of Israel.”

The IDF reports that 3 rockets from Gaza landed in the Be’er Sheva area. The rockets landed in an open area. No injuries were reported.

Residents of Be’er Sheva heard the loud explosions.

The rocket alert sirens did not go off.

3:53pm @LTCPeterLerner

IDF Confirmed: 3 rockets launched from #Gaza hit the Be’er Sheva area in southern #Israel. No injuries reported.

 

Presumably the rockets indicate that Hamas is unhappy with the progress of the negotiations in Cairo.

The director of Sapir Academic College in Sderot, Dr. Nachmi Paz, age 71, was wounded shortly after noon today (Friday) in a rocket barrage fired from Gaza.

The college director sustained shrapnel wounds. He was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva with moderate injuries and is now listed in fair condition.

A 20-year-old soldier who also sustained shrapnel wounds in the attack is listed in good condition at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

The two were hurt after a rocket exploded near the entrance to a community in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council District.

A separate barrage of six rockets was fired at around the same time at the Sdot Negev Regional Council district. Both attacks occurred shortly before noon.