Army held off on hitting Gaza so kids could get in school day — report

Military officials decided to wait until the afternoon to shell Gaza in response to rocket fire early Tuesday morning so that children could get in a normal day of school, Channel 12 news reports.

According to the channel, the military made the decision to hold off after sharing intelligence on the expected response from Gaza with local officials in areas outside the Strip. The decision was made to hold off until later, to allow kids to attend school while affording residents some normalcy before the flare-up.

The army began shelling positions in Gaza shortly after 3 p.m., when most schools would have already gotten out, though many kindergartens run later. Starting at around 3:30 p.m., Gazans fired a volley of 22 rockets at Sderot and other areas.

Earlier, Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen accused Gazan terrorists of timing their barrage to coincide with pick-up from kindergarten.