Israel raids Gaza

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli warplanes launched raids against targets in Gaza overnight after two rockets were fired at Israel from the coastal enclave, Palestinian security officials said on Saturday. No one was hurt in the air attacks which struck bases of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement which rules Gaza, in Gaza City and east of it, one source said. A military spokeswoman confirmed the raids and said warplanes struck "targets of a terrorist organisation" in response to "two rockets fired on Ashkelon and Ashdod" in southern Israel on Friday afternoon. Friday's attack was the first time any rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip since Sunday when militants in the Hamas-run territory began observing an unspoken truce, a military spokesman had said. There were no injuries and no damage, policy spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP on Friday. He did not specify what type of projectiles they were, but the military said it was likely they were Grad rockets because of their longer range. The truce came into effect after days of soaring violence in which Israeli troops pounded Gaza, killing 19 Palestinians, after militants fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus, critically wounding an Israeli teenager.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt