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| Medics carry a man wounded by a mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip, for treatment in Soroka hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. Rockets and mortars from Gaza have pummeled southern Israel, drawing Israeli airstrikes that killed a Palestinian militant. Israeli police say more than 30 rockets and mortars landed in Israel early Wednesday, following a volley the night before. |
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel on Wednesday in the heaviest bombardment on the area in months, drawing ominous Israeli threats of retaliation and dangers of escalation.
The
violence came a day after a landmark visit to Gaza by the emir of Qatar.
Israeli officials suggested the visit, the first by a head of state to
the Hamas-ruled territory, emboldened the militant group.
The
rocket fire began shortly after the emir left Gaza late Tuesday and
continued through the night. Israeli officials said more than 80
projectiles were fired, and Hamas claimed responsibility for many of the
attacks.
Israel responded with a series of
airstrikes on rocket launchers, killing two Palestinian militants,
according to Gaza medical officials. Two other Palestinians were killed
Tuesday.
Three Thai laborers working on an
Israeli farm were wounded, two seriously, when a rocket hit a chicken
coop. Other rockets badly damaged five houses and broke car windows.
Schools in the area were closed.
Many people
spent the day indoors, while others stayed in close proximity to the
makeshift cement shelters found in the streets of southern Israeli
towns. In one farming community, shrapnel covered trees and a children's
playhouse in a backyard.
"Sometimes it feels
like a scene out of the movie `Platoon,' something out of the Vietnam
war. We can stay at home and just hear the noise of the war," said
Tamara Cohen, a resident of the border community of Ein
Habesor whose
children, ages 9 and 5, spent the night in a fortified "safe room" in
their home.
A video issued by Hamas' military
wing showed six rockets peeling off in rapid succession, then later,
from what appears to be a different location, eight rockets shoot off,
leaving plumes of black smoke behind them.
Hamas said the video was made
earlier in the day, though it provided no proof.
Hamas
officials shuttered schools in border areas. Residents said they
worried an escalation of fighting would ruin the upcoming Muslim
celebration of Eid al-Adha, when Gaza residents feast, visit families,
dress their children in new clothes and take them out to play.
Despite
the violence, streets in Gaza City were crowded with residents snapping
up clothes and food ahead of Friday's start of the holiday. Traffic
jams blocked main roads, and prayer leaders chanted songs for the feast.
Israeli leaders threatened tougher action against the rocket fire.
"We
didn't ask for this escalation and didn't initiate it," Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said after touring a missile defense battery. "But if
it continues, we are prepared to embark on a far more extensive and
penetrating operation." The army said the "Iron Dome" defense system
intercepted at least eight rockets.
Defense
Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that "if we need a ground
operation, there will be a ground operation. We will do whatever
necessary to stop this wave" of violence.
Israel's
U.N. Ambassador, Ron Prosor, wrote to the U.N. Security Council warning
members that if they don't condemn the rocket attacks, "there could be
tragic consequences" because Hamas and other militants will interpret
the silence "as a green light for terror and provocation."
Israel
carried out a broad military offensive in Gaza nearly four years ago in
response to years of rocket fire. Salvos from Gaza have largely
subsided since then, though sporadic violence persists.
The
territory is home to numerous militant groups, including murky
al-Qaida-inspired organizations that do not answer to Hamas. Gaza has
also been flooded with weapons in recent years, many of them believed to
have been smuggled from northern Africa and into Gaza through tunnels
under the Egyptian border.
On Wednesday, the
African country of Sudan accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes that
blew up a weapons factory in the capital, Khartoum. Israeli officials
did not comment, but analysts said that if the reports were true, the
airstrike might have attacked a weapons smuggling route. Sudan has
accused Israel of being behind a similar attack on an arms convoy in
2009.
Hostilities in Gaza have been simmering
for weeks, with militants sporadically firing rockets into Israel and
the Israeli air force responding with airstrikes.
Hamas,
which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other
attacks, has largely avoided attacks since a devastating Israeli
military offensive nearly four years ago. Instead, smaller groups have
been behind most rocket fire, sometimes with Hamas' tacit blessing and
sometimes against its wishes.
While Hamas
remains virulently anti-Israel, it has sought to keep things quiet as it
consolidates its control of Gaza. The group violently seized the
territory from the rival, Western-backed Fatah movement five years ago.
Tuesday's
visit by Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, gave a
powerful boost of legitimacy to
Hamas rule, which is not internationally
recognized.
Hamas officials said the emir
urged Hamas to do everything possible to avoid violence with Israel.
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, suggested the visit had
the opposite effect.
"I think what we see,
especially yesterday, the visit of the emir of Qatar in Gaza, it's clear
support for terror and terrorist activity," he said at a news
conference with the visiting EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.
In
his meeting with Ashton, Israeli President Shimon Peres charged that
Qatari money is funding Hamas attacks. "No one in the world could agree
to the current situation" of repeated rocket salvos, Peres said.
Hamas
spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Israel of trying to raise tensions. He
said Israel was upset about the "political and economic gains" reaped
from the emir's visit, and wanted to "disrupt the atmosphere ahead of
the holiday."
Mukheimar Abu Sada, an
independent analyst in Gaza, said Hamas had no interest in clashing with
Israel now but likely felt pressured after two of its men were killed
in an Israeli strike late Tuesday.
"Hamas is
under pressure from the people: `Where is the resistance that you speak
of?' Hamas needed to save face," Abu Sada said.
