Sunday, August 28, 2005 07:43 IST
JNW HEADLINE NEWSRockets hit north and south
By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial StaffAugust 25th, 2005
In what may prove to have been an ominous warning of terrors to come, missiles fired by Israel’s Arab enemies hit targets in the north and south of the country within less than an hour of one another Thursday.Two Katyusha rockets were fired at the northern Galilee from southern Lebanon at around 11:00 AM, one of which landed in a moshav (Israeli cooperative farm), while the second fell within Lebanese territory. No injuries were reported in that attack.
Less than 60 minutes later, Palestinian Arabs fired two Kassam rockets into the northern Negev from within the Gaza Strip. One hit the town of Sderot, causing some damage but no injuries.
It is unclear whether there may have been an attempt to coordinate the two strikes, which came after Israeli forces Wednesday conducted an anti-terrorism operation in the Samarian town of Tulkarm, killing five Palestinian Arabs, among them senior members of Islamic Jihad.
Earlier, in the first terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Old City for many months, a knife-wielding Arab stabbed two Jewish men, killing one and lightly wounding the other
Claiming credit for the strike from Gaza, the military wing of the so-called Popular Resistance Committees said it was a response to “the crime” in Tulkarm, “the continuation of the security fence construction and West Bank settlement expansion.”
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at Israel, saying it was responsible for the upsurge in violence, and calling for international condemnation of the Jewish state.
Israel put its military in the north on high alert following the Galilee attack, and lodged a complaint with the United Nations.
A spokesman for the US “peace-keeping” force in Lebanon called on both sides to “exercise restraint.”
Southern Lebanon was unilaterally vacated by Israeli forces in 2000. Israel is presently in the midst of completing a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
On August 19, while the current withdrawal was in full swing, terrorists fired a Katyusha rocket from Jordan into the Israeli Red Sea port city of Eilat
Israelis opposed to the “disengagement” from Gaza – among them the previous IDF Chief of Staff and the previous head of Israel’s Internal Security Services – have argued that the one-sided Israeli pullout will be followed by simultaneous rocket attacks in the north and south.
Israel’s Army Radio reported Wednesday that the Popular Resistance Committees – the same group that claimed responsibility for this morning’s rocket attack on Sderot – had announced its development of a missile called the Sajil which, it said, had a longer range than the Kassam, bringing southern Ashkelon within reach.
In Lebanon, the Hizb’allah is believed to have about 13,000 missiles deployed for use against Israel. Some, like the Fajr-3 and the Fajr-5, have ranges that can reach south of Haifa, targeting an area that holds about a third of the Israeli population, half of its industry and its main oil refinery.
Unverified reports more than a year ago indicated that Iran had also deployed Zelzal-2 heavy artillery rockets “capable of carrying half-a-ton of chemical warheads as far as Tel Aviv.”
Most of these rockets are flown from Tehran to Damascus International Airport, and are transported from there by truck into Lebanon.
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The EU might not feat Hizbollah, but clearly their intent is the destruction of Israel.