TEL AVIV – Palestinian gunners have renewed missile attacks on
Israel.
Palestinian gunners fired a Kassam-class, short-range missile toward
Israel on Thursday evening. The missile was fired from the northern Gaza
Strip and landed outside the Israeli city of Sderot. Nobody was injured.
Officials said this was the first Palestinian missile attack on Israel
since January 2005. They said the missile warning system in Sderot failed to
operate. The military launched an investigation.
"There is an intolerable gap between what the Palestinian Authority is
saying and what is happening on the ground," Israeli Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz said. "This is a very serious event and Israel will not accept it."
Nobody claimed responsibility for the missile attack. But officials said
the strike was carried out by the Popular Resistance Committees, aligned
with the ruling Fatah movement. In 2004, the PRC launched an advanced
Kassam-class missile variant toward Sderot in which two residents were
killed.
The Israeli military did not respond to the latest missile attack.
Officials said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, preparing for a meeting with
U.S. President George Bush, directed the military to refrain from striking
Palestinian targets. They said the military was bracing for additional
Palestinian attacks during Sharon's visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas
on April 11.
"The worst is ahead of us," Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal said.