Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak (C) surveys a damaged classroom after a rocket landed in a school in the southern city of Beersheba December 31, 2008. Israel on Wednesday said the time was not right for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and stepped up preparations for a possible ground offensive after Hamas's long-range rockets hit another major population centre. At least four of the longer-range Grad rockets hit Beersheba, the city Israel calls the capital of the Negev, its southern region. One struck the school that was empty. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen (ISRAEL)
REUTERS/GIL COHEN MAGEN