Israel hit by 11 rockets in less than 24 hours

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired 11 rockets in less than 24 hours, including a long-range Grad-Katyusha rocket that hit a town west of Beersheba. It is the first such attack since Operation Cast Lead. No injuries or damage have been reported.

Eleven rockets in less than 24 hours. This is the result of the latest military activity of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since this early Friday morning. Authorities declared that all the rockets landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council without injuring people and damaging buildings.

The novelty of this attack is the long-range Grad-type Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza that hit the town of Ofakim, 20 kilometers west of the largest city in the Negev, Beersheba. The Grad-Katyusha is a Soviet weapon copied and developed by other countries. It has a longer range the more makeshift Qassam rocket and it has been often used by Hezbollah in south of Lebanon.

It is the first long-range rocket fired from the Gaza Strip since Operation Cast Lead, launched by Israel in winter 2008-2009. It is the best prove of the permeability of the Gaza-Egyptian borders, open for the weapons trafficking.

The violent escalation may have been a reaction to the IDF assassination of Mohammed Nimnim and Islam Yassin, two members of the Army of Islam (a Palestinian Islamist group inspired by al-Qaida) on November 3 and 17. In fact, earlier on Thursday, the Army of Islam issued a threat in Hebrew for the first time, saying that “Jews are not safe from attacks”.

Qassam rockets have been shot from Gaza almost daily since 2001. The IDF reported that over 180 rockets have landed in Israel since the beginning of the year.

Article published by Digital Journal on November 19th 2010.