The rocket fire from Gaza, which is now being claimed proudly by the democratically-elected government of the Palestinians, has wounded more children in Israel, and nearly killed some on their way to school. Because that’s the tactic that the terrorists are most fond of these days: Firing rockets when they know Israeli children are walking to and from school, in the hopes of getting some.

They did.

Eleven Qassam rockets were fired at the western Negev Thursday morning. Three rockets landed in Sderot, causing several people to suffer shock and damaging a shed close to a residential house, as well as some vehicles. Firefighters were called to the scene to extinguish a fire caused by the rockets. Two rockets were fired at the Eshkol Regional Council and landed near a school.

They hurt two young girls.

Tchelet, the two-year-old, sustained shrapnel injuries to her leg, and her mother suffered from shock. Twelve-year-old Yardena was injured in the shoulder. They were both taken to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment.

Gladis Za’arur-Fishbein, Tchelet’s mother, said she had just picked up her infant daughter from the children’s quarters in the kibbutz when the Qassam landed.

“We were walking on the road with the playground to our left; it’s usually packed with kids at this time of day,” she recounted. “Suddenly I heard a whistling sound followed by an explosion and fire. I was thrown back by the force of the blast. Tchelet was also thrown back and I heard her call for my help. I picked her up and noticed that she was injured in the leg; her shoe was filled with blood.” These are the “crude, homemade rockets” that the news media likes to pretend “rarely kill or injure.” And the fact that the children of southern Israel have only 15 to 20 seconds to find shelter when the rockets are fired? Well, sometimes, you don’t even get that. “There were times in the past when we heard the ‘Color Red’ alert system and then quickly ran for cover,” Gladis added, “but this time the rocket fell without warning; it just exploded right before my eyes.”

But here is the most despicable element to this story: The terrorists in Gaza are deliberately firing rockets during the times they know they have the greatest chance of hitting Israeli children on their way to and from school. An Israeli I know told me they fire the rockets around a quarter to eight, hoping to get the children.

Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Yalin, whose daughter attends the kibbutz’s kindergarten, told Ynet “the rocket landed at a time when all of the children usually play outside, especially on a beautiful day like today. This is also the time of day when some parents come to pick their children up.

Even the AP is finally acknowledging the rocket fire, although there was the inevitable “cycle of violence” angle to the story.

Hamas militants fired a rocket into an Israeli border village, wounding two young sisters as they played outside their home. The attack followed Israel airstrikes against Gaza militants and threats of an “all-front” war on the Islamic group. The rapid-fire events threatened to escalate into large scale combat that could bury U.S.-led Mideast peace efforts. Hamas stepped up its rocket barrages at southern Israel for a second day, retaliating for an Israeli strike that killed seven of its police officers. More than a dozen rockets rained down, one exploding at Kibbutz Beeri, a communal village about four miles from the border fence.

Because in AP-speak, firing rockets into civilian areas is “retaliation” for the IDF killing terrorists. The moral equivalency game of our times. But we’re used to it. We’ve been reading it since the bloody, bloody spring of 2002, when suicide bombs were going off sometimes two and three times a day—and the world told Israel to “show restraint” in the face of her children being blown apart on buses.

Israel is cutting Gaza’s power by 5% per line tonight. Watch for the world condemnation—of Israel, of course.