Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired at least seven rockets at southern Israel, including one that landed near a daycare center. As Robert Berger reports from Jerusalem, residents are accusing the Israeli government of failing to protect them.

Israeli females talk to a little girl at a nursery in the southern Israel town of Sderot 03 September 2007

There was panic as a Palestinian rocket slammed into a courtyard near a crowded daycare center in the hard hit Israeli town of Sderot, near the Gaza border. None of the 15 children were hurt, but for worried parents it was too close for comfort. It was the second day of school, and the second day in a row that that the city has come under rocket fire.

Shlomit Eckstein, a mother of six, told Israel Radio that there are eight daycare centers in Sderot and none have been fortified against rocket attacks. But Eckstein said protecting buildings is not enough.

Like many residents, she says that the only way to stop the rockets is to launch a major military operation in Gaza.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the rocket attacks would not be tolerated. "The army has been instructed to destroy all rocket launchers and target anyone involved in the attacks," he said.

Nevertheless, Israel pulled out of heavily-populated Gaza two years ago, and the government is no hurry to send the army back in. Officials say a major ground offensive is not on the agenda.