Perilous
Times
Israel and Gaza militants exchange fire, 10 killed
By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants in
Gaza on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which
rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian
officials said. Palestinian officials said nine militants were
killed, while on the Israeli side one civilian was killed and four
others were wounded.
Exchanges of fire are common between southern Israel and the Gaza
strip controlled by the militant Hamas group, but this is the
worst in months.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said nine people
were killed and 15 wounded in separate attacks on militant
targets.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one Israeli civilian
was killed and four others wounded when Palestinian rockets
exploded in residential areas in southern Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed a total of four strikes in
Gaza, saying the military hit Palestinian militants from the
Islamic Jihad, one of several groups in Gaza which fires rockets
into southern Israel. The spokesman said that the first attack
specifically targeted a cell responsible for a Wednesday rocket
attack that exploded deep inside Israel. That attack had caused no
casualties.
The military "will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli
civilians," the spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity
in accordance with military protocols.
The Israeli military released video footage taken from a military
drone Saturday afternoon that shows Palestinians unloading rockets
from a truck and preparing them for firing at Israel. The strike
took place shortly afterward.
Abu Salmia, the Gaza health official, said five people had been
killed and 11 wounded in the first attack. Islamic Jihad spokesman
Abu Ahmed confirmed that one of its local field commanders, Ahmed
Sheikh Khalil, was among the dead. He said Khalil was one of the
group's chief bomb makers. "Today it was a great loss for us in
the Islamic Jihad," he said. "The size of our retaliation will
equal our loss," it said in a text message sent to reporters.
"Our response shall be in the depths of the Zionist entity," it
said in reference to the Israeli heartland.
After the first airstrike, militants in Gaza fired over 20 rockets
at southern Israel, Rosenfeld said.
Islamic Jihad took responsibility for firing the rockets in a text
message to reporters, and released photos of the rockets being
launched from the backs of pickup trucks. The group said this is
the first time they are using this system as opposed to firing
them from launchers on the ground.
One rocket hit an apartment building in the southern city of
Ashkelon and injured a 50 year-old Israeli who later died of his
wounds, Rosenfeld said. Another exploded outside an apartment
building in nearby Ashdod, injuring one person. Israeli television
showed about a dozen cars in flames outside the building.
Another Israeli sustained shrapnel wounds in the nearby town of
Gan Yavneh and others in the Ashdod region were treated for shock,
the Israeli military spokesman said.
Israel's Channel 2 television reported that one rocket hid a
school, causing massive damage. No one was hurt because the school
was closed for the Jewish Sabbath, Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasri said.
Late Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned
the mayors of cities hit by Palestinian rockets. Netanyahu said
the military had hit rocket launcher squads responsible for the
attacks and said "the military's response will be tougher if
needed."
After the rocket barrage, Abu Salmia said that a second Israeli
attack killed two people. Islamic Jihad confirmed that they were
militants. Israel's military spokesman said that the second air
strike had hit "terrorists that fired rockets on Israel in the
evening,"
Abu Salmia said another Israeli strike late Saturday killed two
more militants bringing the total to nine.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad took responsibility for multiple
suicide bombings and shooting attacks against civilians in Israel
during the second Palestinian intifadah, or uprising, in the first
half of the last decade.
Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, blamed each
other for the flare up in violence Saturday.
"The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any
terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip," the Israeli
military said.
Israel as a matter of policy holds Hamas liable for violence
perpetrated by any of the different armed groups in the coastal
territory.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum meanwhile said Israel is "fully
responsible for all the results of this dangerous escalation."
In the winter of 2008, Israel launched a broad military offensive
inside Gaza aimed at stopping almost daily Palestinian rocket fire
at Israeli communities.
Since then, violence has continued sporadically along the border
and Palestinians continue to launch mortars and rockets at Israel,
but to a much lesser degree.
On Wednesday, militants fired a long-range Katyusha rocket that
exploded near Ashdod in the south of Israel. Sirens also went off
in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, which unlike many southern
Israeli cities is not accustomed to rocket fire, causing panic.
The Israeli military said the alarm went off because the rocket
exploded in an area between the two cities.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that Israeli
diplomats "will protest against the indiscriminate rocket attacks
on Israeli civilians to the U.N. Secretary General." He said a
similar letter sent after Wednesday's attack has yet to be
answered.
___
Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza contributed to this report.