(17 Jan 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Skyline shot of Sderot, AUDIO: rocket alert warning
2. Skyline of Sderot to zoom in of plume of smoke from a rocket attack
3. Wide of Israeli air surveillance blimp
4. Long shot of part of Israeli alert system
5. Plume of smoke rising from field where another rocket hit
6. Vehicle damaged by rocket
7. Residents entering house that was damaged in the attack
8. Elderly man walking past hole in the fa�ade of the house
9. Interior shot of damaged wall
10. Walking shot of damage inside the house
11. Various of debris inside the house
12. Various of woman being escorted to the ambulance for medical attention
13. Ambulance drives away
14. Israeli police vehicles near the scene of the attack
15. Trail of smoke in the air following a rocket attack
13. Local residents looking at the trail of smoke
14. Various Israeli helicopters in the air
15. Wide of border area between Israel and the Gaza Strip
STORYLINE
Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza escalated their rocket attacks on southern Israel on Thursday, in the wake of this week's carnage in Gaza, and Israel pounded back with air and ground fire, its leaders making it clear that they had no intention of pulling back until the assaults on Israeli border communities halt.
No serious injuries were reported on either side as the violence pushed peace efforts to the sidelines.
AP Television pictures on Thursday showed plumes of smoke rising from locations within the city of Sderot.
One house was severely damaged in one of the attacks with a large hole visible in the fa�ade of the house along with extensive damage to the interior.
Twenty-three Palestinians were killed in a sustained Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and Wednesday, including the son of Gaza's Hamas strongman, Mahmoud Zahar.
A foreign volunteer on an Israeli border farm was killed by a Hamas sniper.
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rejects talks with Israel has intensified its direct involvement in the assaults on Israel as a result of the escalating violence.
Israel declared Gaza an "enemy entity" after Hamas overran Fatah last June and has carried out numerous incursions and airstrikes in the sovereign territory.
Hamas, which had let other militant factions take the lead in attacking Israel since it wrested control of Gaza, claimed it fired 14 rockets early on Thursday, after launching 79 rockets and mortars on Wednesday.
Israel said five landed on Israeli soil on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Israel fired at northern Gaza from the air and ground, targeting, it said, rocket squads and areas militants frequently use to fire projectiles.
But Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently suggested that Israel would not embark upon a broad military operation in the coastal strip. Past large-scale strikes have caused heavy Palestinian casualties without halting the rocket fire.
Militants have launched some 4-thousand of the crude rockets and mortar rounds at southern Israel since Israel withdrew from Gaza in the summer of 2005 after a 38-year occupation.
The rockets have killed 12 people since 2001 and sown panic in border areas, where people are frequently forced to rush to take cover when sirens alert them to incoming projectiles.
Militants have been extending their reach as well, with one Iranian-made rocket recently travelling some 16 kilometres (10 miles) inside Israel's borders.
The deepening violence has clouded the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
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