- Title: ISRAEL: Israel says may escalate Gaza attacks
- Date: 11th November 2012
- Summary: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL SDEROT, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 11, 2012) (REUTERS) NIGHT SHOTS ISRAELI POLICEMEN AND PARAMEDICS AT SITE WHICH WAS HIT BY ROCKET FROM GAZA DAMAGE TO CAR POLICEMEN NEAR HOUSE THAT WAS HIT BY ROCKET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE RUNNING AFTER HEARING THE SIREN MOSHE, RESIDENT OF HOUSE HIT BY ROCKET, SHOWING DAMAGE (SOUNDBITE) (
- Embargoed: 26th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA9X68P8KN1D7BPYLOTRD3XEF4K
- Story Text: Israeli may escalate Gaza attacks following a surge of rocket and mortar salvoes by Palestinian militant groups.
Israel said it was poised to escalate attacks on the Gaza Strip on Sunday (November 11) following a surge of rocket and mortar salvoes by Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
A rocket launched from Gaza on Sunday night hit a house in Sderot causing damage to the building and nearby vehicles.
"There was a siren, those who were on the top floor came down to the living room. And others went down to basement. The rocket hit directly into the girl's room, luckily there was nobody there. The room was destroyed completely as you could see," house resident, Moshe, told Reuters Television.
Four Israelis were wounded by rockets on Sunday (November 11), a military spokeswoman said. Southern Israeli municipalities ordered residents to shelters and shuttered some schools.
A missile strike wounded four Israeli troops on jeep patrol along the Gaza boundary on Saturday (November 10), triggering army shelling that killed four Palestinian civilians and, in turn, dozens of short-range rocket launches out of Gaza that paralysed Israel's southern border towns.
Israel's Iron Dome defence system knocked out a longer-range "Grad" rocket that was aimed at the southern city of Beersheba, the army said.
The Israeli military said the tank had shot back at the spot where shortly before militants had fired an anti-tank missile at the army patrol.
Israel went to war against Hamas in the winter of 2008-2009, but has shown little appetite for a new round that could strain fraught relations with the new Islamist-rooted government in neighbouring Egypt, which made peace with Israel in 1979.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak, a centrist in Israel's coalition government, played down speculation that the upcoming election was affecting Gaza policy.
"If we are forced to go back into Gaza in order to hit Hamas and restore calm, we will not hesitate to do so," Barak said.
Barak described Saturday's jeep ambush as part of a Palestinian strategy of raising the cost of Israel's countermeasures against cross-border infiltration. Israeli forces often mount hunts for tunnels and landmines on the inside of the Gaza boundary, creating a no-go zone for Palestinians.
After not openly taking part in Saturday's fighting, which included the firing of dozens of Palestinian short-range rockets and mortar bombs, Hamas issued a joint statement with five other factions claiming responsibility for Sunday's fresh salvoes.
Islamic Jihad, a smaller faction than Hamas which often operates independently, said one rocket crewman was killed by an Israeli air strike on Sunday (November 11), after another member was killed on Saturday while photographing the fighting.
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