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Kassam launch site (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners April 24, 2007 |
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The first significant barrage of mortars and rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza into Israel in about five months fell harmlessly Tuesday night. More than 10 Kassam rockets and 12 mortar shells fell into Israel. Hamas, saying that the ceasefire was over, claimed that dozens had fired. Nobody was wounded.
The projectiles were reportedly launched from two separate locations.
The Iz al-Din al-Qassam brigage of Hamas said in a statement that Hamas militants launched 40 rockets and 70 mortar shells from the Gaza Strip "in reaction to the continued Zionist crimes against our people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." The attacks were in retaliation for IDF military operations in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, in which nine Palestinians have been killed, most in armed clashes.
But the army said that the real motive for the barrage was designed to provide a diversion for another cross-border kidnapping attempt, such as the one in which Cpt. Gilad Shalit was snatched last June.
?The army was prepared for such a scenario; the Southern Command forces responded correctly,? a military official told Ynet.
Speaking during a ceremony commemorating Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism for Memorial Day, Defense Minister Amir Peretz commented on Qassam rocket attacks against Sderot as if Israel had been responding to the continuing stream of cross-border firings. "Six years of turning a blind eye have ended, and from now on no one will be immune. We will operate across the border." |
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