According to a report received today from an SOS-Kinderdorf International co-worker in the Middle East, the SOS Children's Village situated in the south of the Gaza Strip came under gunfire during the night. In a similar incident in February the school building and the kindergarten were shot at. This time some of the family houses were damaged.
Israeli tanks are positioned around the site of the SOS Children's Village. The motives for the attack are not clear. The children and SOS mothers, who were terrified after the incident, are avoiding open areas and are staying in the ground floor of their houses for security reasons.
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SOS Children's Village Rafah, which after SOS Children's Village Bethlehem is the second children's village in the Palestinian Territories, has been confronted with the consequences of the tense situation in the Gaza Strip since opening in September last year. The village, which consists of 12 family houses, an SOS Hermann Gmeiner School and a kindergarten, is situated near the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, where very few state-run care facilities exist and daily life is marked by poverty, unemployment and resignation. The SOS Children's Village facilities are popular with and frequently visited by the local population.