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Israel seizes shipment of Kassam rockets in West Bank

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, February 7, 2002

RAMALLAH Ñ For the first time, Israel's military has seized Palestinian short-range rockets in the West Bank.

Palestinian sources said Israeli troops confiscated a truck-load of Kassam-2 rockets near the West Bank city of Nablus on early Wednesday. The sources said the truck contained eight launchers and missiles concealed under a shipment of fruits and vegetables.

A senior Israeli officer, Brig. Gen. Gershon Yitzhak, said the rockets found have a range of more than 10 kilometers and a warhead of about 4.5 kilograms.

"The missiles were manufactured in civilian lathes in Nablus," Yitzhak said. "It is locally manufactured with a diameter of 120 mm that could presumably reach as far as 10-12 kilometers."

It was the first time Israel had found the Kassam rocket in the West Bank. Earlier, Israeli military intelligence had warned that Palestinian insurgents had deployed the Kassam-1 and Kassam-2 in the area.

Israeli military sources confirmed the seizure of the Kassam missiles and launchers. The army's Central Command exhibited the rockets and officers said they were meant to be launched toward Israel from the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

So far, the Palestinians have developed up to four rockets in the war against Israel. The rockets range from 4.5 to 20 kilometers.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said the Kassam-4, which has not yet been deployed, is meant to have a range of 20 kilometers. All of the missiles, they said, were designed by the Hamas movement in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority.

On early Thursday, Israeli F-16 aircraft attacked a Palestinian Authority facility in Nablus. Palestinian sources said Israeli tanks also shelled a metal workshop and other factories in the city.

Earlier, an Islamic gunman shot his way through a Jewish settlement and killed three people. Two of them were a mother and daughter whom the gunman had taken hostage. The gunman, identified as a member of the Hamas movement, was killed by Israeli forces.

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