GAZA CITY: Four rockets fired from Gaza crashed into southern Israel yesterday without harming anyone, Israeli police said, hours after an airstrike killed a Hamas fighter.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP two rockets fell in open areas within the Eshkol district which flanks the southern sector of the Gaza border, while another two landed in and around Beersheva, a city of 194,000 people.
In Gaza, fighters from the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the two rockets fired at Beersheva.
The exchanges prompted Beersheva mayor Ruvik Danilovitch to cancel school classes until further notice.
“Many of the houses in our town are not protected (against rocket fire) and we cannot play with the lives of our children. I hope that lessons can resume soon,” he told Israeli public radio.
Hours earlier, an Israeli air strike killed a Hamas fighter and wounded another after they fired mortar shells at Israeli tanks on an incursion near the southern city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
Hamas said its gunmen had fired mortar rounds at Israeli ground forces who had penetrated the coastal territory nearby. The military said those soldiers, who were unhurt, had been carrying out “routine work along the boundary fence.”
The dead man was named as Suleiman Kamel Al-Qara, 25, a member of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement.
The wounded man was also said to be a Hamas fighter.
The military confirmed the strike but refused to comment on the allegation Israeli armor had entered the Palestinian territory and come under fire from militants.
“Overnight, IAF (air force) aircraft targeted a rocket launching site and squad in the central Gaza Strip, during final preparations to fire a rocket toward southern Israel. Secondary explosions were identified and a hit was confirmed,” it said, implying ammunition or explosives were hit.
The latest exchanges took place after a three-day lull in violence after an Egyptian brokered truce went into force at midnight on Wednesday.
The agreement was aimed at ending a 72-hour spike in cross-border fighting, which began on Monday, with Israeli strikes killing eight militants and armed groups firing more than 100 rockets across the border, seriously wounding two Thai workers.
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces on Saturday held senior Hamas MP Mahmud Al-Ramahi for several hours at a military roadblock in the West Bank and impounded his car, Palestinian parliamentary officials said.
The Parliament speaker’s office said Ramahi was questioned until evening about his activities in the militant group before being sent back to his home in Ramallah, but his vehicle was confiscated as allegedly Hamas property.
It said that Israeli forces this week visited the home of jailed Hamas MP Ahmed Mubarak and took his car away on the same grounds.
Ramahi, formerly secretary-general of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Parliament, has been repeatedly held by Israel.
Four rockets hit Israel after raid kills Hamas fighter
