Israel launches Gaza raids after rocket attacks

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military yesterday shelled and carried out a new air raid over the Gaza Strip in response to the latest in a series of rocket attacks from the territory, an army spokesman said.

“The aircraft aimed at an uninhabited area from where rockets have been fired (at Israel) over the past few days,” the spokesman said, giving no further details. Artillery batteries lined up facing the Palestinian territory fired into open fields around the northern town of Beit Hanoun, the army said, as Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Gaza City for the second night running.Palestinian medical sources said there were no casualties from the raids.The military action followed a rocket fired from Gaza that exploded inside southern Israel overnight without causing any casualties, an Israeli military source said.The rocket, which landed in the town of Sderot, came after the Israeli army vowed to use all means to protect its citizens following a spate of Palestinian rocket attacks to avenge the killing of a militant commander on Sunday.”The Israeli army will react with determination to put an end to attacks and will use all means in order to prevent Israeli citizens from coming to harm,” a spokeswoman told AFP.Late Monday, Israeli artillery shelled open fields in northern Gaza before aircraft bombed neighbouring land that the army said was a rocket launch site.Early on Tuesday, a helicopter fired a missile into a building of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party in Beit Hanoun and another office in the southern town of Rafah used by Islamic Jihad.Five people, including two women and a baby, were wounded in the Rafah attack, Palestinian interior ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khussa said.The flare-up marked the first Gaza-based strikes on Israel since September 27 when militants announced they would stop attacks following an earlier cycle of unrest after Israel’s historic pullout from the territory last month.The rockets were claimed by Islamic Jihad, whose military wing’s West Bank commander was killed by Israeli troops on Sunday.Louai Saadi was shot dead along with another Jihad activist Majed al-Ashkar after troops surrounded their hideout in the town of Tulkarem.One Jihad leader told AFP the group stood by an informal truce in attacks on Israel, in force since early this year, but stressed that “any Israeli violation of this quiet will be answered by Islamic Jihad”.- Nampa-AFPArtillery batteries lined up facing the Palestinian territory fired into open fields around the northern town of Beit Hanoun, the army said, as Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Gaza City for the second night running.Palestinian medical sources said there were no casualties from the raids.The military action followed a rocket fired from Gaza that exploded inside southern Israel overnight without causing any casualties, an Israeli military source said.The rocket, which landed in the town of Sderot, came after the Israeli army vowed to use all means to protect its citizens following a spate of Palestinian rocket attacks to avenge the killing of a militant commander on Sunday.”The Israeli army will react with determination to put an end to attacks and will use all means in order to prevent Israeli citizens from coming to harm,” a spokeswoman told AFP.Late Monday, Israeli artillery shelled open fields in northern Gaza before aircraft bombed neighbouring land that the army said was a rocket launch site.Early on Tuesday, a helicopter fired a missile into a building of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party in Beit Hanoun and another office in the southern town of Rafah used by Islamic Jihad.Five people, including two women and a baby, were wounded in the Rafah attack, Palestinian interior ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khussa said.The flare-up marked the first Gaza-based strikes on Israel since September 27 when militants announced they would stop attacks following an earlier cycle of unrest after Israel’s historic pullout from the territory last month.The rockets were claimed by Islamic Jihad, whose military wing’s West Bank commander was killed by Israeli troops on Sunday.Louai Saadi was shot dead along with another Jihad activist Majed al-Ashkar after troops surrounded their hideout in the town of Tulkarem.One Jihad leader told AFP the group stood by an informal truce in attacks on Israel, in force since early this year, but stressed that “any Israeli violation of this quiet will be answered by Islamic Jihad”.- Nampa-AFP