Anver Suliman's letter of January 6 refers.

Anver Suliman's letter of January 6 refers.

As is customary with the MRN, the letter bristles with omissions and inaccuracies.

Suliman says Israel terrorises Palestinians and kills their women and children. Read him and you'd think the Israelis were monsters.

What he does not say is that since April 16 2001 Hamas has fired 6977 rockets and about 3000 mortar bombs at Israeli civilian settlements.

One of them, Sderot, with 23000 inhabitants, has had to endure 45 percent of the attacks.

I recently visited Sderot. The streets were empty of people, who only get 15 seconds warning of the rocket attacks. Each block has a small air raid shelter. Schools have double roofs in the hope that the top one will absorb most of the impact.

I visited a crèche where 62 percent of infants have stress problems. At least 90 percent of inhabitants have experienced a rocket landing in their street or the next one.

Mercifully the casualty rate to the end of 2008 has been only about 250. But what is the psychological cost to the 190000 people living within striking distance?

For years the Israeli government has urged an end to the cowardly attacks. Last Christmas Hamas fired 80 rockets and Israel decided enough was enough.

Don Krausz, Killarney