News Service from House Harris

MID: Rockets and optimism for Israelis near the Gaza border

SDEROT, Israel, Jan 4 AFP - To Israelis living along the Gaza border the sound of artillery pummelling the Palestinian enclave is a hopeful sign that the rocket fire may stop at last. But then a missile slams into a house.

The rocket fired by Gaza militants demolishes part of the single-storey home in a working-class neighbourhood of the southern Israeli city that has borne the brunt of such attacks over the past eight years.

Neighbours rush to the scene as soon as the "red flag" alert ends.

Some weep, an old man just shakes his head and a couple of women, seemingly undisturbed by the commotion, resume hanging their laundry as the sound of Israel's big guns echoes from the Gaza Strip a few kilometres away.

But all are optimistic that "Operation Cast Lead" can bring an end to eight years of rocket attacks by the Islamists of Hamas and other militant groups based inside the impoverished territory.

"That's the whole point of this operation," says Sderot Mayor David Muskila, as he comforts neighbours still in shock from the rocket attack.

"We hope this will bring peace and silence to this area, not only Sderot, but also Ashkelon, Beersheva and others," he says in reference to communities within rocket range of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Many residents have fled to relatives in safer areas, while others who stay barely venture from their homes.

On Sunday - a normal working day in Israel - stores in Sderot remain shuttered and few residents are to be seen on streets that have been taken over by hordes of journalists, security forces and emergency rescue teams.

But life is showing the first signs of returning to normal in Israeli communities within rocket range of Gaza.

Shortly after the alert is lifted, a street cleaner picks up his broom and slowly resumes sweeping a Sderot street.

Residents are growing increasingly confident that the barrage of rocket fire they were warned could rain down on them at the start of ground operations will fail to materialise.

Some missiles have hit Sderot on Sunday, but it was a far cry from the daily average of almost 65 rockets and mortar rounds authorities say hit southern Israel in the week before tanks and troops moved into Gaza on Saturday evening.

Sderot municipal spokesman Shalom Halavi believes that calm, and at least some normalcy, will soon return to the area, but he also says residents will stand firmly behind the troops leading the assault on the Hamas rulers of Gaza.

"I think the operation will be short, but we stand with the army whatever happens," he says as detonations echo in the distance.

Maurice Ochana, a 58-year-old factory worker who helped his shell-shocked neighbour out of her rocket-hit home, echoes the sentiment.

"This is the solution we have been waiting for. We are putting the soldiers in charge."

In the nearby village of Kfar Aza, the only local residents to be seen are a couple of guinea fowl running to and fro, apparently dazed by the incessant blast of artillery fire.

>From the village 800 metres from the border, white contrails are seen shooting skywards from the ground in Gaza as three rockets are fired in rapid succession at southern Israel.

A huge pall of rising black smoke marks a spot that has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces since Saturday evening.

The rumble of tanks can be heard and the earth shakes as shell after shell is shot. A screech indicates that an Apache attack helicopter has launched yet another missile.

Udi Galili, 42, a hydrologist who lives in a nearby village, looks on approvingly from the roadside.

"If you live in a tough neighbourhood, you have to be tough," he says.