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Israel destroys Kassam rocket facilities in Gaza

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, July 26, 2002

GAZA CITY Ñ Israel's military has destroyed Palestinian facilities that produce the Kassam-class short-range rockets in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources said seven Israeli tanks and a bulldozer entered overnight Friday the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun and destroyed three buildings where the rockets were being produced. Israeli military sources said 22 lathes used to manufacture the Kassam rockets were destroyed in the operation.

The Israeli military operation came after Hamas renewed rocket attacks on Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip and within the Jewish state. The Palestinians have at least three models of the Kassam, which is said to have a range of up to 10 kilometers.

Israeli military sources said Kassam rocket production has been financed and overseen by the Palestinian Authority. They said most of the metal workshops destroyed were in a complex of the PA police.

Overnight Friday, Palestinian gunners continued to fire Kassam rockets toward Israel.

Two vehicles in an unspecified Israeli community were damaged.

Israeli military sources said they also plan to target facilities that produce the Al Bana anti-tank missile. The missile is another product of Hamas's military production facilities in cooperation with the PA and has been increasingly used by Palestinian insurgents.

The increased use of Hamas's rockets came in wake of the Israeli assassination of the movement's military leader Salah Shehada on Tuesday. Another 15 people were killed in the F-16 bombing on Shehada's apartment in Gaza City.

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Shehadeh had been planning to pack a ton of explosives in a truck to blow up a target within Israel. Ben-Eliezer termed this "mega-terror."

The ruling Fatah Party has also threatened retaliation in wake of Shehada's assassination. A Fatah splinter group released a communique that threatened to kill Israeli leaders, including current and former military commanders and ministers.

Palestinian sources said the Fatah communique was distributed in Lebanon and not in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said the communique was read only by the Hizbullah-owned Al Manar television.

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