Six of the missiles landed in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, the
prime target of Palestinian gunners since 2002. At least two Israelis were
injured.
Israel has significantly reduced operations in the Gaza Strip amid an
Egyptian and U.S. effort to achieve a ceasefire. For several days in March,
Palestinian gunners reduced their fire amid orders from the Hamas regime.
But officials said Hamas has refused to halt increasing missile fire
from its Palestinian allies. They cited the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad,
which resumed daily missile and sniper attacks on Israeli civilian targets.
In an unrelated development, the Israeli military announced the arrest
of the Palestinian planner of a suicide bombing that killed 30 Israelis and
injured 150 in 2002. The target of Hamas operative Omar Jabar, arrested near
the West Bank city of Tulkarm, was a Passover ritual meal at an Israeli
hotel. The suicide strike sparked a month-long Israeli military operation
that recaptured the West Bank.
"Jabar recruited the contact that dispatched the suicide bomber,
introducing him to the head of the Hamas in Tulkarm at the time, Abed
Sayad.," the military said on Wednesday. "Sayad admitted in his
investigation that the connection with Jabar had already begun in 1994, when
the two were imprisoned together."
Since the attack, Jabar was said to have recruited and trained
operatives for Hamas in the West Bank. The military said Jabar was directed
to establish a Hamas militia in Tulkarm capable of fighting the Palestinian
Authority.
"Following clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip in January
2007, Jabar worked to establish and finance a Hamas operational cell in
Tulkarm," the military said. "He purchased weapons and recruited terror
operatives, intended for the establishment of a Hamas cell similar to
operational cells active in Gaza."