From The Israel Project, 30 July 2010:
Attack Comes a Day after Arab League OKs Direct Peace Talks
Terrorists in Gaza fired a Grad rocket into the Israeli town of Ashkelon Friday morning (July 30), hitting a residential area and sending several people into shock as well as damaging nearby cars and an apartment complex. A few hours later, terrorists launched two mortars that hit the western Negev. The explosions didn’t cause injuries.
Ashkelon, a port city of 125,000 people along the southernmost portion of the Mediterranean, is located seven miles (12 km) from Gaza and has been the site of numerous past Gaza rocket and missile attacks.
“Israel takes the firing on Ashkelon very seriously,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday.
The Ashkelon attack occurred a day after the Arab League met in Cairo and approved Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to engage in direct peace talks with Israel. Hamas said the League’s decision was a "political sin."
Last weekend, terrorists in Gaza fired four Qassam rockets and two mortar shells that hit the western Negev but didn’t cause any injuries.
Iran-backed Hamas’s Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades took credit for the Ashkelon attack. Hamas has been in full control of Gaza since launching a bloody coup against the Palestinian Authority’s rival Fatah group in June 2007.
Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza have fired 108 rockets, mortars and missiles from Gaza into Israel since Israel ended its defensive operation from December 2008-Jan. 9 to root out rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities Gaza.
That marks a significant decrease from the 7,000 rockets, mortars and missiles fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew all of its citizens and forces from the area in August 2005. Israel carried out the 2005 operation in hopes of paving the way for an independent Palestinian state....
Follow this link to the online TIP article to also see photos, statistics and access additional sources of information about this event.
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