Four home-made rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel today, as the Israeli army retaliated to deadly attacks at the weekend by destroying the homes of Hamas militants.
Israeli military sources said the four Qassam rockets, named for the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the hardline Islamic group Hamas, caused no damage when they crashed into fields near the southern Israeli town of Sderot.There were no injuries.
The Israeli army re-occupied a buffer zone in the northern end of the Gaza Strip on Thursday to hinder the firing of the Qassams, which are unguided Katyusha-style rockets with a range of up to 12 kilometres (eight miles) and carry a 5.5 kilo (11 pound) warhead.
Palestinian officials fear the Israeli army could stage a major reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, the stronghold of Hamas and its smaller rival Islamic Jihad, while world attention is focused on a looming US war on Iraq.
An Israeli helicopter gunship yesterday killed Hamas co-founder Ibrahim Ibrahim Maqadmeh and his bodyguards in an attack in Gaza City, drawing Hamas threats of hits on Israeli political leaders.
Israel has stepped up its attacks on Hamas in recent weeks, pushing deeper into the Gaza Strip in a series of bloody raids which have left dozens of Palestinians dead, many of them civilians.
Hamas claimed last Wednesday's suicide bombing on a bus in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, which killed a total of 16 people, most of them students.
In retaliation for the bus bombing, Israeli forces destroyed the home of the suicide bomber and two other Hamas militants killed while carrying out attacks in the region on Friday night. In one of the attacks, a US-born Jewish settler rabbi and his wife were killed in their home.
Israel has destroyed more than 150 militants' homes since last August in a bid to deter future attackers, a policy criticised by rights campaigners as collective punishment, as families are left destitute by the demolitions.
Israeli troops also arrested 13 suspected militants in the West Bank, eight of them around Hebron following a spate of attacks on local Jewish targets.
AFP