<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile — Israel warns southern cities to prepare for strikes by new 30-km range rockets

Israel warns southern cities to prepare for strikes by new 30-km range rockets

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

TEL AVIV — The Israel Army has warned of residents of several cities they may now be within range of Palestinian missile strikes.

The army has obtained evidence that the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip has acquired and prepared missiles and rockets with a range of 30 kilometers.

Officials said the military's Home Front Command has been advising residents of several cities in southern Israel to prepare for Palestinian missile strikes.

"Experience has shown that people who learned how to cope with emergency situations and prepared themselves, performed better at the moment of truth," the military said in a statement.

On Dec. 8, the army distributed leaflets in the Israeli city of Ashdod, about 25 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip. The leaflets said Ashdod, which contains a naval port, could become the next target of Hamas-aligned missile and rocket attacks.

"Over recent years southern settlements have been dealing with rocket fire from the Gaza Strip," the army leaflet said. "Considering the possibility that that the rockets may also reach your area of residence, it is very important you begin preparing yourself and your family to contend with these difficulties."

So far, the Hamas regime has limited its missile and rocket strikes to targets no farther than Ashkelon, about 10 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip. In December 2008, Ashkelon came under the first Hamas mortar strikes in what officials said marked an escalation of the war with the Islamic regime.

Officials said Hamas has acquired Katyusha-origin rockets from Iran and Syria with a range of 30 kilometers. They said the rockets arrived in the Gaza Strip by both land and sea from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The army has also distributed the leaflets to the cities of Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi. Officials said the army also held seminars for schools in the southern town of Ofakim on how to respond to missile attacks.

Officials said the government would also consider the installation of systems that would warn of missile and rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip. Such a system has already been installed in Ashkelon.

On Dec. 7, the Cabinet approved the allocation of $150 million to reinforce homes in Israeli communities within 4.5 kilometers of the Gaza Strip. Officials acknowledged that several similar decisions had been ignored.

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