This marked the first claim of responsibility by Jund of a rocket attack
on Israel. In August 2009, the group was said to have been nearly decimated
in a Hamas assault in which more than 30 people were killed in a mosque in
the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
In the Hamas operation, Jund leader Abdul Latif Mussa was also killed.
Jund, which receives funding from Gulf Arab states, was said to have
recruited about 500 members in the Gaza Strip.
This was the second claim of responsibility by Jund since the Hamas
assault in Rafah. The Hamas regime has dismissed the statements, with
officials saying Jund was trying to demonstrate that it was still active.
The Israel Army confirmed a Palestinian rocket strike, which also
elicited a claim of responsibility by the Syrian-supported Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine. The rocket was said to have landed in a field
in the western Negev desert and nobody was injured.
Jund has been one of four major Al Qaida-aligned groups in the Gaza
Strip. Over the last year, other Al Qaida cells claimed responsibility for
attacks on Israel.
