Sporadic rocket fire keeps south Israel jittery

SDEROT, Israel (Reuters) - The message conveyed by the rockets that slammed into this nervous little town on Tuesday was as clear as the meaning of the helicopters hovering high above it, firing missiles into the Gaza Strip.

On Day 11 of the fighting, there was no sign of a ceasefire.

Israeli long-range artillery and offshore naval guns fired on targets marked by bright flares that sank slowly down from a clear blue sky into the smoke-veiled city of Gaza. Oily black plumes rose from the explosions.

The muffled rattle of Israeli heavy machinegun fire drifted up from an invisible ground battle, punctuated by the sharp bang of the rocket-propelled grenades fired by Hamas fighters.

Israeli army Humvees patrolled dirt roads behind the border to keep reporters out of the closed military zone. An incongruous cattle rancher rode up and down, moving his herd onto the slopes among flights of white egrets.

Television crews on high ground recorded the battering of Gaza two or three kilometers off, and Israel sent government spokesmen among them to ensure its message was getting across.

"There will be no ceasefire until the rocket fire from Gaza stops," said one foreign ministry official. Israel wants to "change the situation on the ground, so that we don't go back to the same thing in one month or two months from now."

Gaza's fighters did not appear to be suing for a truce, managing to fire a dozen rockets at Israel at the same time as fighting the advance of its far better armed ground force. Some sent TV crews and spokesmen alike diving for cover.

Two rockets flew overhead to the center of nearby Sderot, where an ear-splitting bang knocked the glass out of a couple of empty buses. No one was hurt but everyone got a fresh dose of the jitters.

Some 8,000 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at towns east and north of Gaza since 2000, killing 18 people before last month.

Ending this menace once and for all is Israel's stated motive for attacking the crowded Gaza Strip.

Since the latest fighting began on December 27, over 500 rockets have been fired from Gaza, and four Israelis killed.

The toll in Gaza is about 600 dead, a quarter of them civilians including many little children, and 3,000 wounded. At least 40 people were killed when tank shells slammed down near a U.N. school on Tuesday, medics said.

Critics say that is using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat. Israel, in the words of President Shimon Peres, says it had no choice but to teach Hamas a lesson and make it stop.

Sderot and other towns have dozens of little concrete bomb shelters dotted around so residents can duck for cover whenever they hear the rocket alarms sound.

Like the V-2 rockets that rained on London in World War Two, they are random weapons whose zone of impact is unpredictable.

People have about 10 seconds to get out of harm's way. If they are outside and can't reach cover, they lie on the road. Or they can shrug their shoulders and let destiny take its course.

Whatever secret diplomacy may be going on to end the Gaza war, it now seems impossible to imagine Israel turning its tanks around and going home until it can promise these people they need no longer go in fear of death from above.