Gaza rocket hits Ashdod kindergarten Photo: IDF

An Israeli kindergarten principal in Ashdod, whose school was hit by a rocket from Gaza on Tuesday, is deeply worried that the school year may not start next week, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported.

“I’d just gotten home, and there was siren, and a [rocket] strike,” in the playground of the 35-pupil center, Ninette Peretz said.

Rocket shrapnel tore through a slide, and destroyed other playground toys, according to photo released by the IDF.

“I’d left just 10 minutes earlier, with the assistant, since we were preparing for the new school year,” she told police. “I heard about it and I’m shaking,” she said.

“An immense tragedy was averted here, thank God – we’re lucky that the children weren’t here,” she said with relief.

“I don’t know what’s happening with the opening of the school year, what with all the rockets, but I hope the kindergarten does open – for the kids’ sakes, since they need the stability after such a trying period,” she added.

Mulling delaying opening schools on time for the new year, Mayor Yehiel Lasry told reporters, while visiting the site, that “Human life is the highest value in Judaism – not September 1st. It could als0 be on the 10th, and the 15th.”

“We must finish dealing with Hamas, and only then start the school year  – which is as it should be,” Lasry added.

“In the last half hour, we’ve had 24 rockets in the Eshkol region,” Council chief Haim Yellin told Israel’s NRG News Tuesday, as Palestinian mortar salvos pounded towns and villages across his area. “1,300 rockets since the beginning of the fighting.”

“So far, since he morning, there were 35 mortars fired at towns in the vicinity of Gaza, causing a lot of property damage. Since the start of fighting, we’ve seen some 500 mortars, fired at communities,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, a private home in Ashkelon sustained a direct hit by a Grad rocket, which demolished the structure, and traumatically shocked some 70 Israelis in the vicinity, according to medics.