- Title: ISRAEL: Rocket launched from Gaza into southern Israel
- Date: 7th January 2009
- Summary: ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER AREA, ISRAEL (JANUARY 7, 2009) (REUTERS) WIDE VIEW OF ROCKET BEING LAUNCHED TOWARD ISRAELI SHOOTING INTO SKY LINE OF SIX ISRAELI ARMY ARMOURED VEHICLES DRIVING NEAR BORDER WITH GAZA VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING FROM PALESTINIAN TOWN ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN FOREGROUND AS SMOKE BILLOWS IN DISTANCE OUTSIDE OF PALESTINIAN TOWN SDEROT, ISRAEL (JANUARY 7, 2009) (
- Embargoed: 22nd January 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: War / Fighting
- Reuters ID: LVA570LS1EG0KING3R81BEEZEXX6
- Story Text: Palestinian militants fired rockets towards southern Israel on Wednesday (January 7) as both Israel and Hamas studied an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire.
Video footage captured one rocket as it was fired from a village in northern Gaza toward Israel. At least eight Hamas rockets hit southern Israel, causing no casualties.
Medical workers said 11 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip in fresh fighting.
On Tuesday, Israeli shells killed 42 Palestinians taking refuge at a U.N. school, prompting Arab and widespread international anger.
Israel accused Hamas of using civilians as "human shields" and said troops had been returning mortar fire from the school.
But Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that runs the institution in Jabalya refugee camp said: "We're 99.9 percent sure, after an initial investigation, that there were no militants at the school."
The southern Israeli town of Sderot is often a target of the rockets, commonly known as "Qassams," fired by Palestinian militants based in Gaza.
Residents of the town frequently rush to fortified shelters, when alarms sound indicating rockets are incoming.
Though the rockets rarely kill, they have disrupted life in the town.
Sderot and other towns have dozens of little concrete bomb shelters dotted around so residents can duck for cover whenever they hear the rocket alarms sound.
Like the V-2 rockets that rained on London in World War Two, they are random weapons whose zone of impact is unpredictable.
People have about 10 seconds to get out of harm's way. If they are outside and can't reach cover, they lie on the road. Or they can shrug their shoulders and let destiny take its course.
Prior to Israel's military operation in Gaza, many residents have called on the Israeli government to take stronger action against Palestinian militants.
Residents say they hope the military action will bring an end to the rockets.
"I want the operation to continue so it will bring an end to Qassam rockets. But on the other hand, I feel sorry for our soldiers and the Palestinian civilians who are killed in vain," Alise Pesso, a Sderot resident said.
Israel, which has lost seven soldiers and three civilians in the conflict, wants any end to hostilities to satisfy its demand that Hamas will no longer be able to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through tunnels under the southern border with Egypt.
Reservists like Yair Zakaria know all too well the costs of the ongoing military operations taking place in nearby Gaza.
"This operation will eliminate Hamas. I was just released from the army, and my friends are in Gaza. This is what needs to be done, but is not what we want to do," Zakaria said.
More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Hamas - which has rebuffed Western demands to recognise the Jewish state, end violence and accept existing interim peace deals - has demanded a lifting of the blockade of Gaza in any truce.
It seized the territory in 2007, 18 months after it won a parliamentary election.
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