New terrorist rockets can travel deeper into Jewish state*

Posted: March 8, 2007
News From Israel

TEL AVIV – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have manufactured improved
rockets that can travel deeper into the Jewish state, placing hundreds
of thousands more Israelis within firing range, a leader and spokesman
of the Islamic Jihad terror group claimed .

Israeli security officials said the improved rocket capabilities of
Palestinians in Gaza came about with the aid of Iran, which provided
technology and training to the terror groups.

Abu Muhammad, a Gaza-based militant and spokesperson for Islamic Jihad,
said his organization manufactured rockets that can travel up to 14.3
miles (23 kilometers) into Israel from Gaza. He said the new projectiles
afford Palestinian groups the ability to reach further into Israel and
to launch the rockets from anywhere within the Strip.

Since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip in August 2005, Islamic Jihad has
been responsible for firing hundreds of rockets from the territory aimed
at nearby Jewish cities.

Until now, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have mostly been firing Qassam
rockets from the northern Gaza Strip. Qassams are improvised steel
rockets, about four feet in length, filled with explosives and fuel.
They can travel between one and four miles, depending on the
sophistication of the particular rocket. Last summer, Islamic Jihad
fired a Katyusha rocket at Israel with a large payload and a range of
about 12 miles.

The Qassams have been almost daily bombarding Israeli towns, including
Sderot, a city of 25,000 some three miles from the Gaza border, and
Ashkelon, a port city that is home to important strategic industrial
plants and one of Israel's largest electricity generators.

The new claim suggests a dozen more Israeli cities would be within range
of the rockets, bringing to about 250,000 the total Israeli population
that could live under rocket threat from Gaza.

Abu Muhammad vowed to continue launching rockets deeper into Israel.

"In the coming period, the strategy of Islamic Jihad and other
organizations is to turn Ashkelon into the next Sderot and keep
bombarding towns regularly until reaching deeper and deeper," said the
terrorist.

Sderot has been the town most regularly hit by rockets from Gaza,
prompting reports of some residents evacuating the city.

Abu Muhammad claimed Israel would be "very surprised and astonished soon
by our rocket capacities. We will not abide by any cease fire."

In November, Israel agreed a truce with Gaza militants in which the
Jewish state vowed to suspend antiterror operations in Gaza in exchange
for quiet. Since then, over 160 rockets have been fired from Gaza but
the Israeli Defense Forces has been restrained from operating in the
territory.

Abu Muhammad would not confirm if Iran assisted his group in developing
its new purported rocket capabilities.

"It is not the business of anyone where we receive rockets or training,"
he said.

Yesterday, Chief of the Gaza Command for the Israel Defense Forces Yoav
Galant told reporters Iran has been helping Hamas and other Palestinian
terror groups upgrade its military capabilities by providing technology,
funding, and direct military training.

He said hundreds of militants have been traveling to Iranian bases in
Iran, Syria and Lebanon and said "people from Iran" also visit Gaza to
inspect the area.

Galand would not elaborate on whether Iranian Revolutionary Guard units
were operating in the Gaza Strip.

Officials from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah
party last month claimed they captured seven Iranian military trainers –
including a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – inside a
Hamas-affiliated college which they said was being utilized as a Hamas
military training ground.