ISRAEL - Sept 3 - Olmert Issues Warning After Rockets Are Fired At Israeli Border Town.

A rocket fires from Gaza on Sept 3 morning lands in an empty courtyard between a kindergarten and a school in the Israeli border town of Sderot, according to police officials there. The near-miss prompted calls from parents to close down the city's schools and a stern warning from PM Ehud Olmert. Nobody was wounded in the rocket attack, but five people were treated for trauma, the police officials said. Haim Bublil, the Sderot police chief, said by telephone that the rocket had slammed into a tree that was blocking its path, possibly preventing further damage. The rocket was one of seven launched from Gaza, according to army and police officials; six fell in open areas around the town, in one case causing a small fire. Olmert warned that Israel would "not compromise" when it came to rocket attacks. He said Israeli retaliation had "exacted a very heavy price" in the past and would continue to do so in the future. Israel would "not hesitate to strike anyone" threatening the security of Israel's south, he added. Islamic Jihad, an extremist Palestinian faction, claimed responsibility for the rocket launchings, saying it was a response to Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Three Palestinian children were killed Sept 5 when Israeli ground forces fired at a rocket launcher in a field in northern Gaza after identifying movement in the area. Later, the military acknowledged that the children, two aged 10 and one aged 12, were simply playing tag in the area and were not trying to retrieve the launcher, as was first suggested. An Israeli air strike hit a car carrying an Islamic Jihad rocket-launching crew in southern Gaza on Sunday, according to the army, but the militants escaped. Thousands of rockets have been launched at Sderot in the past seven years. Twelve Israelis have been killed in the attacks. Even before the school year started, anxious parents had threatened to keep their children home because of what they perceive to be a lack of adequate protection. After the attack Sept 3, Batya Katar, head of the Sderot Parents Association, told The Associated Press: The school year is over. We can't hold on any more". But the Home Front commander told a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet in late August that there was a surplus, rather than a shortage, of reinforced classrooms in Sderot, and that the state had spent considerable sums reinforcing most of the city's kindergartens against rocket fire. Often, there are only a few seconds between an incoming rocket alert and impact, giving residents too little time to reach protected spaces. Responding to the latest escalation in rocket fire, the mayor of Sderot, Eli Moyal, said that the problem was not the lack of reinforcements in the city, but the government's reluctance so far to undertake major military action in Gaza. "We don't need fortifications in Sderot", Moyal told Israel Radio. "You can't fortify the streets and the parks and the soccer fields and cafes". Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip two years ago. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, recently said that there could be no further withdrawals from the West Bank until Israel had a rocket defense system in place. Also Sept 3, Olmert appeared to lower expectations regarding the chances of agreeing on a document of principles for a final settlement with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, ahead of an international meeting planned for November. "If we can achieve a draft by November, we will achieve it, but I am not sure we will be able to do that", Olmert said.