Palestinian rockets 'deadlier than ever'

JERUSALEM – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been firing improved, more deadly rockets into nearby Jewish communities and have recently manufactured projectiles that can travel deeper into the Jewish state, placing hundreds of thousands more Israelis within firing range, a leader and spokesman of the Islamic Jihad terror group claimed to WND.

This past week, Sderot, a city of nearly 25,000 Jews about three miles from the Gaza border, has been bombarded with barrages of over 130 rockets, causing some injuries and the collapse of several homes and structures.

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One rocket Saturday hit a vacated children's school, another slammed into a synagogue just after services, and a third slammed into a Sderot gas station, injuring one person.

Yesterday, over 20 rockets were fired into Sderot, one scoring a direct hit on a restaurant, setting the structure ablaze. The restaurant was empty at the time.

According to Israeli media reports, about 15 percent of Sderot residents have evacuated the city, but local officials tell WND the number is closer to 40 percent.

Sderot residents and Israeli security sources noted a difference in the rockets being fired from Gaza the last few days. They say in the past, upwards of 80 percent of Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza land outside Jewish cities, but the recent barrages have been more accurate, with the vast majority landing inside Sderot and other targets. The sources say the rockets are filled with more explosive fuel than in the past, and have demonstrated a high degree of accuracy and deadliness.

Sderot residents complained of "inaccurate" international media coverage of the rocket fire. They said the news media were painting the rockets as homemade Palestinian projectiles that merely disturb regular life, but don't cause injury.

A widely circulated Associated Press article from yesterday, for example, minimized Palestinian rockets hitting Jewish cities, stating, "Although the rocket attacks have severely disrupted life in parts of southern Israel the homemade projectiles have rarely caused serious casualties."

"There is a tendency to minimize rocket attacks if civilians aren't harmed or killed. This tendency is dangerous," said Noam Bedein, director of the Sderot Information Center, a media-action organization focused on bringing attention to regular rocket attacks on Jewish towns near Gaza.

"It's a miracle when people aren't killed in these Palestinian rocket attacks; we're talking about large rockets packed with deadly shrapnel," Bedein told WND.

Abu Muhammad, a Gaza-based militant and spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, told WND his group and Hamas have been firing rockets in recent days that are more accurate, feature twin engines, and larger canisters that can carry larger payloads than in the past.

He said his group and other Palestinian terror organizations built rockets that can travel up to 14.3 miles (23 kilometers) into Israel from Gaza. He said the new projectiles afford Palestinian groups the ability to reach further into Israel and to launch the rockets from anywhere within the Strip.

Until now, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have mostly been firing Qassam rockets from the northern Gaza Strip; most rockets fired could travel up to 4 miles. The Qassams have been bombarding Sderot and Ashkelon, a port city that is home to important strategic industrial plants and one of Israel's largest electricity generators.

The new claim suggests a dozen more Israeli cities would be within range of the rockets, bringing to about 250,000 the total Israeli population that could live under rocket threat from Gaza.

Abu Muhammad claimed Israel would be "very surprised and astonished soon by our rocket capacities."

He said his group's goal is to "turn Sderot into a ghost town and from there fire deeper and deeper into the Zionist heart."

Abu Muhammad's Islamic Jihad has taken credit for hundreds of rocket attacks in recent months, but Hamas has largely taken responsibility for the barrages the past week.

Hamas announced the recent rockets attacks were in part meant to provoke an Israeli military response to distract from the daily Palestinian factional infighting in Gaza this week. Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party have been fighting in the streets in some of the deadliest clashes since the two forged a national unity government earlier this year. The fighting threatens to torpedo the unity deal.

In the face of repeated rocket attacks, Israel yesterday continued a restrained offensive against Gaza-based terror groups, firing missiles at Hamas rocket facilities and taking out a car carrying Hamas members and a load of weapons, killing three militants.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet yesterday threatened if rocket attacks on Israel continue, it would consider expanding targeted killings to include Hamas political leaders.

It agreed to "intensify operational measures" in the Gaza Strip if the rocket attacks continue.

But the IDF's military operations in Gaza are not expected to deal a severe blow to the rocket infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli military sources.

The sources said the army has not been authorized to launch any major ground invasion into Gaza and is only allowed to hit select Hamas military installations after receiving direct approval from either Olmert or Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

The sources said that to dent Gaza's rocket capabilities, the army estimates it would need to mount a massive ground offensive to confiscate some of the hundreds of tons of weaponry smuggled into Gaza in recent months and temporarily reoccupy swaths of territory in the northern Strip, where most rockets have been launched. The army also said it recommended stationing troops along the Egypt-Gaza border, the site of rampant weapons smuggling. The border was controlled by Israel until the Jewish state's evacuation of Gaza in August 2005.

The IDF's incursions this week marked the first time the army operated in Gaza since a cease-fire was signed with Gaza militants in November in which Israel vowed to suspend anti-terror operations in exchange for quiet. Since then, more than 480 rockets have been fired from Gaza, but the IDF largely has ceased from operating in the territory.

Military officials said there have been indications for months Hamas and other major Palestinian terror groups used the cease-fire to improve the range of their rockets, smuggle in mass quantities of weapons, construct underground bunkers and build guerrilla-like armies.

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