Hamas launches rocket attacks against Israel

• At least 12 Qassam rockets and eight mortar rounds were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday 24^th April 2007. All landed in open territory, and no casualties or damage were reported.

• The IDF said that the attacks originated from two separate locations in the Gaza Strip, and appeared to have been coordinated. IAF helicopters returned fire at the launch sites.
• Hamas's armed wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were intended to avenge IDF operations in which nine Palestinians were killed.
• The strike came after militants in the Gaza Strip fired three Qassam rockets into southern Israel on the evening of Saturday 21^st April. One rocket landed next to a residence in the Negev town of Sderot, destroying an external wall and lightly wounding two people, and two rockets landed in open areas near the town.
• The Qassams were intended as a "clear message to the Zionist enemy," Hamas spokesman Abu Obeideh said in an interview to a Palestinian radio station. He said that the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip had ended long ago, and blamed Israel. "[Hamas] is ready to kidnap and kill more and more soldiers,"
• Hamas released a statement condemning "Zionist crimes against [the Palestinian] people in Gaza and the West Bank."
• Hamas also said it had fired some 80 missiles, but the IDF could confirm nowhere near that number.
• This is the first such attack since a truce began five months ago. Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in November, but reserved the right to respond to the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces.
• Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, "The blood of our people is not cheap. Therefore we are calling on the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas' armed wing) and the Palestinian resistance groups to be united in the trench of resistance and to use all possible means of resistance and to respond to the massacres."
• Hamas officials in the government have tried to separate themselves from pronouncements by the group's military wing. Israel considers Hamas in all its forms to be a terrorist group.
• Fatah has also called for measures against Israel. Spokesman Abu Hakim Alwad said "The Arab and the Palestinian leadership should evaluate the contacts with Olmert's government and reconsider these contacts and meetings, "Israel is sabotaging the efforts made by the president to maintain calm and to strengthen the cease-fire."

Israel's Response

• Army sources have revealed that the IDF will limit its military response to the barrage of rockets fired at Israel by Gazan militants. They also state that the army prevented an attempt by Hamas to kidnap an Israeli soldier.
• Senior army officials have revealed that security preparations taken by the Southern Command along the border with the Gaza Strip prevented Hamas from carrying out their plan of capturing an additional IDF soldier. IDF officials say that the intense barrage of mortars and rockets launched at Israel on Tuesday morning was a diversionary tactic meant to provide covering fire for an infiltration aimed at kidnapping soldiers. Immediately after the first salvo of rockets and mortars was launched, Israel Air Force helicopter gunships attacked Qassam and mortar launching crews along the border with the Gaza Strip.
• A special cabinet meeting is not expected to be called.

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