- Title: MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian rocket hits southern Israel
- Date: 3rd March 2008
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASHKELON RESIDENT SAYING "This is a very serious situation, we can't live like that, we can't live that, we need to do our regular things." (REPORTERS QUESTION: 'WHAT DO YOU THINK ISRAEL SHOULD DO?' "We need to say that if this will not stop, we need to say to the government of the Palestinians, they need to know, that our planes will take them down
- Embargoed: 18th March 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA1NS7BMMDZBF4DKQLB89XK7QA9
- Story Text: A Palestinian rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hits the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, wounding a woman.
A Palestinian long-range rocket hit the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Sunday (March 2), lightly wounding one woman and spreading panic amongst residents.
Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace negotiations with Israel, demanding it end a Gaza offensive that has killed more than 100 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
Israel said it was acting in self-defence in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to curb constant cross-border rocket attacks by militants and threatened to intensify its ground and air campaign despite allegations it was using excessive force.
Abbas had ordered "the suspension of negotiations ... until (Israeli) aggression is stopped", a senior aide to the Palestinian leader said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
But Abbas stopped short of declaring dead the U.S.-brokered statehood talks opposed by Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip from his Fatah movement in June.
A 21-month-old Palestinian girl, two other civilians and three militants were killed in the latest fighting in the Gaza Strip, raising the Palestinian death toll in five days of bloodshed to more than 100, medical officials said.
Anti-Israeli demonstrations erupted in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces confronting stone-throwers near the town of Hebron shot dead a 14-year-old boy wearing a Hamas headband, witnesses said.
More than 10 rockets slammed into southern Israel, wounding four people, Israeli ambulance workers said. For the first time since the surge of violence began, Fatah militants in the Gaza Strip said they launched salvoes across frontier.
Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Israel of using "excessive force". He demanded a halt to air and ground attacks that killed 61 people on Saturday, the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s, and militants' rocket salvoes.
European Union president Slovenia condemned Israel's attacks as disproportionate and violating international law. The presidency statement also called for an immediate halt to the rocket fire.
Abbas designated Sunday a day of mourning.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet Abbas and Olmert this week. Washington has said it hoped Israeli-Palestinian talks can lead to a statehood deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.
One Israeli has been killed by a rocket launched from Gaza since the current surge in bloodshed began. Hamas has said such salvoes would stop if Israel abandoned operations in the Gaza Strip and raids against militants in the occupied West Bank.
Meeting in emergency session, the U.N. Security Council said it was deeply concerned about civilian deaths in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip and urged a cessation of violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been under pressure from some of his cabinet members to launch a broader offensive in the Gaza Strip, especially after militants began firing longer-range Katyusha rockets at Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people.
But Israeli officials have spoken publicly of the heavy loss of life such a campaign could cause on both sides. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting with Gaza militants on Saturday.
The offensive has taken Israeli troops deeper into the Gaza Strip and in larger numbers than at any time since Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the territory in 2005, 38 years after its capture. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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