TEL AVIV — Israeli officials said the Islamic Jihad targeted
Defense Minister Amir Peretz with a missile that struck his neighbor's home while Peretz was at home.
Israeli military sources said Islamic Jihad fired a Kassam-class
short-range missile that nearly struck the defense minister's home in Sderot.
Peretz was in the house when the missile struck a neighbor's home.
Nobody was injured, Middle East Newsline reported.
"He is a Zionist enemy minister," a Jihad spokesman told a news
conference in Gaza City on Wednesday.
"We will find the way to implement activities that prevent these
organizations from firing toward Sderot and other communities," Peretz said.
Jihad said it fired four Al Quds-4 missiles, regarded as a variant of
the Kassam,
toward Sderot. Two of the missiles landed in Sderot and the remainder fell
in
nearby fields.
The sources said Peretz had been warned that he would be a target of
Jihad and Palestinian insurgency groups. They said the defense minister has
refused appeals by the military to reinforce his home.
"Jihad has suspended its attempts to strike strategic facilities in
Ashkelon," a military source said. "Instead, Peretz is the target."
