Two dead in Palestinian rocket attack on Israel

SDEROT, Israel – Rockets fired by Palestinians in Gaza yesterday killed people in Israel for the first time, a three-year-old boy and a man, in a surge of violence ahead of an Israeli pullout from the strip.

A strong Israeli military response appeared likely after two rockets slammed into the southern town of Sderot. Some 12 hours earlier, militants blew up an army post in the Gaza Strip, killing one soldier and wounding five.At least four Palestinians were also killed in the latest spiral of violence in the area, where Israel and militants have been locked in a fight to claim victory before implementation of prime minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan.Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the armed wing of the Hamas group, claimed responsibility for the Sderot attack, which fuelled worst-case scenarios in Israel of rockets raining down on its southern towns after a Gaza withdrawal.”Who is watching over (our children)? Nobody.That’s my message to the prime minister,” said Yitzhak Ohayon, whose three-year-old son Afik was killed in Sderot.”We were supposed to go to his end-of-year party in kindergarten tomorrow…and now instead we’ll be going to his funeral.”Medical officials said a man, aged 50, was also killed and about a dozen people, including the boy’s mother, were wounded.One of the rockets landed next to a kindergarten, but none of the children inside was hurt.It was the first time makeshift Qassam-2 rockets fired from Gaza, whose small payloads usually cause no serious injuries, had killed anyone in Israel.Sharon planned to hold security consultations later in the day, an official said.Sderot, a working class town a kilometre (half-mile) from the border, has been hit by 10 rockets this year, the army said.”They (Israeli forces) should never leave Gaza.It would mean death for us,” said Mira Zaaroum, a Sderot resident.Sharon told a parliamentary committee after the attack he was determined to press ahead with his plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of the 120 in the West Bank.Israeli critics of the proposal, approved in principle by the cabinet on June 6, have said a pullout would only bolster Palestinian militants after more than 3-1/2 years of violence.Sharon said settlers who wanted to leave as early as “tomorrow morning” would be eligible for an advance payment of state compensation.Officials have said a final relocation package could offer an average of US$300 000 per family.”They (settlers) will not be held hostage,” Israeli media reports quoted Sharon as saying, referring to a second cabinet vote due only in nine months’ time on whether to begin evacuation of the 7 500 Israelis living in the Gaza Strip.Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, both claimed responsibility for Sunday’s explosion that destroyed the army post near the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements.They called it retaliation for Israel’s assassination of two top Hamas leaders earlier this year and the killing of an al-Aqsa Brigades leader in the West Bank on Saturday.After the explosion, a Palestinian policeman and a teenager were killed by troops.The army said there was heavy Palestinian fire from a nearby refugee camp and troops fired back.Early yesterday, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian truck driver near a Gush Katif checkpoint, medics said.A Palestinian was killed near the Gaza settlement of Morag, Palestinian sources said.The army said he was a gunman.- Nampa-ReutersSome 12 hours earlier, militants blew up an army post in the Gaza Strip, killing one soldier and wounding five.At least four Palestinians were also killed in the latest spiral of violence in the area, where Israel and militants have been locked in a fight to claim victory before implementation of prime minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan.Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the armed wing of the Hamas group, claimed responsibility for the Sderot attack, which fuelled worst-case scenarios in Israel of rockets raining down on its southern towns after a Gaza withdrawal.”Who is watching over (our children)? Nobody.That’s my message to the prime minister,” said Yitzhak Ohayon, whose three-year-old son Afik was killed in Sderot.”We were supposed to go to his end-of-year party in kindergarten tomorrow…and now instead we’ll be going to his funeral.”Medical officials said a man, aged 50, was also killed and about a dozen people, including the boy’s mother, were wounded.One of the rockets landed next to a kindergarten, but none of the children inside was hurt.It was the first time makeshift Qassam-2 rockets fired from Gaza, whose small payloads usually cause no serious injuries, had killed anyone in Israel.Sharon planned to hold security consultations later in the day, an official said.Sderot, a working class town a kilometre (half-mile) from the border, has been hit by 10 rockets this year, the army said.”They (Israeli forces) should never leave Gaza.It would mean death for us,” said Mira Zaaroum, a Sderot resident.Sharon told a parliamentary committee after the attack he was determined to press ahead with his plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of the 120 in the West Bank.Israeli critics of the proposal, approved in principle by the cabinet on June 6, have said a pullout would only bolster Palestinian militants after more than 3-1/2 years of violence.Sharon said settlers who wanted to leave as early as “tomorrow morning” would be eligible for an advance payment of state compensation.Officials have said a final relocation package could offer an average of US$300 000 per family.”They (settlers) will not be held hostage,” Israeli media reports quoted Sharon as saying, referring to a second cabinet vote due only in nine months’ time on whether to begin evacuation of the 7 500 Israelis living in the Gaza Strip.Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, both claimed responsibility for Sunday’s explosion that destroyed the army post near the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements.They called it retaliation for Israel’s assassination of two top Hamas leaders earlier this year and the killing of an al-Aqsa Brigades leader in the West Bank on Saturday.After the explosion, a Palestinian policeman and a teenager were killed by troops.The army said there was heavy Palestinian fire from a nearby refugee camp and troops fired back.Early yesterday, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian truck driver near a Gush Katif checkpoint, medics said.A Palestinian was killed near the Gaza settlement of Morag, Palestinian sources said.The army said he was a gunman.- Nampa-Reuters