Israel vows revenge for rockets
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel vows revenge for rockets
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BBC - Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has said Palestinian
militants will pay a heavy price for a rocket attack which killed an
Israeli woman.
Militants from the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement and
Islamic Jihad said they had fired the rockets into the Israeli town of
Sderot.
Israel has been carrying out raids in Gaza intended to stop such attacks.
Israeli airstrikes hit the homes of two Palestinian militants on
Wednesday evening, but without casualties.
The Israeli military said it had targeted weapons stores in the homes,
one in the Shathi refugee camp outside Gaza City and the other in the
Jabalya refugee camp.
In Geneva, the UN condemned Israel for an artillery strike in Gaza last
week, which killed 19 Palestinian civilians.
In a special session, the UN Human Rights Council voted to send a
fact-finding mission to the scene of the off-course strike, the town of
Beit Hanoun.
An Israeli military investigation has blamed technical failures for the
deaths.
'Extremely serious'
Police say six rockets fell in and around Sderot, near the Gaza border.
Map of Gaza
A 57-year-old woman died and a man in his 20s was seriously wounded.
Later, militants fired at least three on Ashkelon, with no casualties
reported.
There have been several claims of responsibility for the fire on Sderot,
including one from the armed wing of Hamas. It said the attack was a
response to the deaths in Beit Hanoun.
"These organisations will pay a heavy price," the Israeli defence
minister said.
"We will move against those who are involved in the firing of rockets,
starting from their leaders and down to the last of their terrorists,"
Mr Peretz added.
Fear and panic
Qassam rockets are fired into Israel from Gaza by Palestinian militants
on a daily basis.
They rarely cause death or serious injury, but do cause fear and panic.
In all, nine people, all civilians, are thought to have been killed in
Israel by Qassam rockets since the first fatalities in June 2004.
The last time someone was confirmed to have been killed inside Israel by
Palestinian rocket fire was in July 2005.
Israel cites the threat from Qassam rockets as the main reason for its
military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Almost 400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have died in such
operations since late June 2006.
The UN's chief human rights official, Louise Arbour, says she will visit
Israel and the Palestinian territories next week to examine the current
situation facing civilians. She will hold talks with the authorities on
both sides, as well as with human rights groups.