MID: Hamas militants fire rockets deeper into Israel
28 Dec 2008 7:54 PM
JERUSALEM, Dec 28 AFP - Militants inside the battered Gaza Strip have launched rockets deeper into Israel as Israeli warplanes continued to pound Hamas targets in the overcrowded Palestinian territory, officials said.
One rocket landed near the Israeli town of Yavne, more than 30 kilometres north of the Gaza Strip, without causing injuries, according to Israeli medics.
It was the farthest that a rocket fired from Gaza had landed in Israel. Usually projectiles launched by militants in the territory have a range of 10 kilometres.
Other rockets landed around the city of Ashkelon, 13 kilometres north of Gaza, without causing casualties, the Israeli military said.
In Gaza, Hamas said it had fired two longer-range Grad rockets towards the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, 30 kilometres north of the coastal strip.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli side of whether the rockets hit.
Since the mammoth Israeli bombing campaign was launched on Saturday, Gaza militants have fired at least 85 rockets into Israel, killing one man and wounding four other people.
More than 270 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded as a result of the Israeli bombing raids in Gaza, an impoverished Palestinian enclave of 1.5 million people that has been a stronghold of the Hamas Islamist movement since June 2007.
