Palestinian rocket attack on Israeli city draws Gaza air strikes

GAZA: A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in the largest city in southern Israel early on Wednesday, prompting Israeli air strikes that killed a militant in the Palestinian enclave. The attacks came a day after Egyptian mediators started a round of talks with officials from the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza, as part of efforts to negotiate a long-term ceasefire after months of violence along the border with Israel.

The rocket hit a two-storey house in Beersheba before dawn, the Israeli military said. It gutted most of the home, blowing out concrete walls and its stone facade, showering its yard and an adjacent street with rubble. The family living there managed to take shelter in a reinforced room after alert sirens sounded, said officials in the city about 40 km (25 miles) from the Gaza Strip. Another rocket launched from Gaza and aimed at central Israel fell into the Mediterranean Sea, the military said. After the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held consultations with his defence minister and military and security chiefs at army headquarters near the Gaza border.

He said that in a statement that unless attacks from Gaza ceased, “Israel will act with great force” to stop them. With a nod to the Egyptian talks, Hamas and other major militant groups in Gaza took the unusual step of denying responsibility for Wednesday´s launchings, saying they rejected “all irresponsible attempts to sabotage the Egyptian effort, including the firing of the rockets”.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any of the other smaller groups that operate in Gaza, and by mid-afternoon the area was quiet. Israeli minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio there was evidence to back up the Hamas statement. But he said Israeli policy dictated an “immediate and forceful retaliation” against Hamas targets because the organisation controls Gaza.