In Israeli border town, rockets an audible reminder Hamas is unbeaten

The relentless fire of Israeli artillery provides the noisy soundtrack in this largely emptied front-line Israeli town, its scenes of grassy suburbia located barely a half-mile – as the rocket flies – from the northeast corner of the Gaza Strip.

But despite more than eight weeks of intense Israeli bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza, and a ground incursion that has left most of the now-decimated northern strip under Israeli control, there is another, parallel soundtrack over Sderot that surprises many here.

Every day Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, proves it can still launch rockets into Israel, with several hundred fired so far since the collapse of a weeklong cease-fire last Friday. And every day, missiles of Israel’s Iron Dome short-range air defense system fly