From The Israel Project
Israel Hit by Rockets and Mortars
Attack Comes a Day after Arab League OKs Direct Peace Talks
Terrorists in Gaza fired a Grad rocket into the Israeli town of Ashkelon Friday morning (July 30), hitting a residential area and sending several people into shock as well as damaging nearby cars and an apartment complex. A few hours later, terrorists launched two mortars that hit the western Negev. The explosions didn’t cause injuries. [1]
Ashkelon, a port city of 125,000 people[2] along the southernmost portion of the Mediterranean,[3] is located seven miles (12 km) from Gaza and has been the site of numerous past Gaza rocket and missile attacks.[4]
“Israel takes the firing on Ashkelon very seriously,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. [5]
The Ashkelon attack occurred a day after the Arab League met in Cairo and approved Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to engage in direct peace talks with Israel. Hamas said the League’s decision was a "political sin."[6]
Last weekend, terrorists in Gaza fired four Qassam rockets and two mortar shells that hit the western Negev but didn’t cause any injuries. [7]
Iran-backed Hamas’s Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades took credit for the Ashkelon attack.[8] Hamas has been in full control of Gaza since launching a bloody coup against the Palestinian Authority’s rival Fatah group in June 2007.
Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza have fired 108 rockets, mortars and missiles from Gaza into Israel since Israel ended its defensive operation from December 2008-Jan. 9 to root out rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities Gaza.[9]
That marks a significant decrease from the 7,000 rockets, mortars and missiles fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew all of its citizens and forces from the area in August 2005.[10] Israel carried out the 2005 operation in hopes of paving the way for an independent Palestinian state.
---- The full Press Release from The Israel Project is online at http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=689705&ct=8549423
