- Title: ISRAEL: Tension rises as Palestinian rocket hits Israeli town
- Date: 17th May 2007
- Summary: (BN16) SDEROT, ISRAEL (MAY 16, 2007) (REUTERS) AN ISRAELI MAN HOLDING HIS FAINTING WIFE AFTER A PALESTINIAN ROCKET LAUNCHED FROM GAZA HIT THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD, SHOUTING ON CELL PHONE OF ISRAELI PARAMEDICS EVACUATING WOMAN AMBULANCE DRIVING AWAY
- Embargoed: 1st June 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA4NFM3F8PGX5TO2VL43EWLK9L9
- Story Text: Amid internal Palestinian violence between Hamas and Fatah, tension around the Israel-Gaza border is high after a Palestinian Qassam rocket hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Amid fierce Palestinian internal fighting in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian missile fired by Gaza militants hit a residential neighbourhood in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday night (May 16).
The missile caused some damage. A woman living near by fainted and was later evacuated by paramedics to a hospital for further treatment.
While battles raged throughout the Gaza Strip, bringing death toll to at least 24 Palestinians who were killed as President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas battled for control of Gaza, militants have fired rockets at southern Israel, causing injuries but no deaths, in an apparent attempt to draw Israel into the fighting.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel had launched two airstrikes into the Gaza Strip, and said one of the attacks, the deadliest since a November truce in Gaza was declared, targeted a Rafah command centre used by Hamas to plan attacks and a rocket crew that had just fired into the Jewish state.
Israel's biggest air strike razed a building used by Hamas' Executive Force in the south Gaza town of Rafah, killing four militants. Israel said the attack was not connected to internal clashes that have killed at least 40 people since Friday.
A later air strike in northern Gaza killed another Hamas militant and wounded two other Palestinians, residents said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel may step up military strikes in the Gaza Strip in response to a surge of Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes.
Palestinian officials said the widening hostilities could bring down a two-month-old unity government formed between Hamas and secular Fatah. Some Palestinians see this leading to all-out civil war and the end of the Palestinian Authority.
Terrified Gaza residents hid indoors as masked gunmen fought running battles street-to-street, killing 19 people. In one panicked call to a radio station, a woman urged Palestinian leaders to act, pleading: "Do not leave us to die here."
Israel faces a delicate balancing act. It is under heavy domestic pressure to stop the rockets and also wants Fatah to deal a blow to Hamas; it agreed to let 450 Fatah troops into Gaza from Egypt on Tuesday (May 15).
But overt Israeli assistance for Fatah could backfire if Hamas is able to paint Abbas as an ally of the Jewish state, which many Palestinians see as their real enemy.
Hamas and Fatah declared a ceasefire at 1700 GMT. But fierce gunfire and explosions were still heard throughout the cramped coastal strip. Two Fatah security officers and a Hamas gunman were killed in separate clashes. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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