Medium Range Rocket Hits Israel
By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News) — Israel’s military said a foreign produced medium-range rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon Tuesday, February 3, a day after the militant group Hamas asked Iran to help it to “liberate” Jerusalem and “all Palestinians”.
The Grad rocket was the first of its kind to be fired at the city of 122,000 since informal cease-fires were declared separately by Israel and Hamas two weeks ago at the end of Israel’s 22-day offensive in Gaza.
It landed in an open space in the middle of Ashkelon, but no one was injured, Israeli police said.
The Grad is distinctive from the home-made projectiles more commonly used by Hamas and smaller militant groups, as it is manufactured abroad, has greater range and carries a more powerful payload, according to observers.
Tuesday’s attack came as a Hamas delegation met Egyptian mediators in Cairo, officially to discuss a “long-term truce with Israel,” although Hamas officials have made clear they are preparing for a new war.
“FULL LIBERATION”
Speaking in Tehran Monday, February 2, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told Iranian officials that “the victory” in Gaza against Israel was a precursor of the “full liberation of Palestine” and Jerusalem. Israeli governments have described Jerusalem however as the country’s “undivided capital.”
Hamas has demanded that border crossings to Gaza be open in exchange for a “durable cease-fire,” but militants have not specified how long that truce would last. Israel has limited aid and commercial traffic, saying it fears materials could be used by militants and that crossings are used to smuggle weapons. The Israeli government also says it will not open its borders until soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by militants in 2006, is released.
Tuesday’s rocket attack into southern Israel was expected to intensify the country’s response to previous missile attacks. Since Sunday, February 1, Israeli forces bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, after about a dozen mortars and rockets were reportedly fired by militants into Israel that injured three Israelis.
At least one Palestinian militant was killed in Gaza in one of the Israeli air strikes, Palestinian medical officials said Monday, February 2. Just before Israel’s latest military action, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Sunday, February 1, “disproportionate” responses to any rocket or mortar attacks launched from the Gaza Strip.
TERROR DICTATE
In a weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert stressed, “We won’t return to the rules of the game that terror groups have tried to dictate, and we won’t be dragged into a never-ending shooting war.” He said,”We won’t give the terror groups warning as to when and how we’ll react, but Israel will respond and act at the time and place of its choosing.”
Before the latest Israeli attacks, Palestinians in the Southern Gaza town or Rafah said they received voice messages by telephone warning “everybody who is near any place used for terror, or weapons storage facility or tunnels, should evacuate the area immediately.”
Hamas has urged international humanitarian support, saying Israel already killed at least 1,300 people during its recent offensive, amid fears the death toll could dramatically rise if the Jewish state steps up its military actions again.
Israel says the death toll is high because Hamas uses people as “human shields.” At least one Palestinian family in Gaza confirmed their farm was turned into a “fortress” by Hamas, and said they were “merely human shields” as Hamas “waged war on Israel” from their farm, Palestinian media reported.
FARM “FORTRESS”
“The Abd Rabbo family kept quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza Strip into a fortress. Right now, they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after Israel bombed the farm and turned it into ruins,” according to a translation of Palestinian daily ‘Al-Hayat Al-Jadida’ provided by Palestinian Media Watch.
The family’s farm is reportedly a prime location to launch attacks into Israel as it rests on a hill overlooking the Israeli town of S’derot. Hamas has used it to launch hundreds of rocket attacks into Southern Israel over the past few years, media said.
One family member, only identified as Hadi, 22, was quoted as saying: “You can’t say anything to the resistance [fighters], or they will accuse you of collaborating [with Israel] and shoot you in the legs.”
Members of Hamas’ rival faction Fatah were reportedly detained and in several cases shot and killed. Hamas denies it targets innocent civilians but says it will fight against “collaborators of Israel.” It has been difficult to verify all reports independently, but local Christians have told Worthy News there is concern about growing Islamic extremism in the Gaza Strip.