PM: Katyusha strike on Ashkelon marks grave escalation in terror

 Last update - 13:51 06/01/2008       
PM: Katyusha strike on Ashkelon marks grave escalation in terror
By Barak Ravid and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

 

The Katyusha rocket strike on Ashkelon last week marks a grave escalation in terror activities from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday.

 

Olmert told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to step up its response to the firing of rockets.

 

"We will continue to respond, to initiate and to harm anyone who carries out launches from Gaza," he said. "We will continue to invest in reinforcing the towns in the Gaza envelope to help them deal with these terror threats.
 
Despite protests from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government, Olmert also said Israel will continue to operate against militants in the West Bank, where Fatah holds sway.

 

Government sources said Sunday that the Katyusha, fired last Thursday, was not an Iranian-made model but rather a Russian-made GRAD-type model.

 

It was the farthest distance a rocket of this sort had reached.

 

The Katyusha was launched from the al-Attara region, near the northern edge of the Gaza Strip. The IDF estimates it traveled 17 kilometers, well within the rocket's known range of 18-20 kilometers.

 

Defense sources said the IDF was not planning a wide-scale military operation on Gaza, though it has stepped up its use of warplanes.
The sources said that IDF action in the last few months - in which close to 100 militants gace been killed - has proved itself.

 

Israel is planning to continue with its ground raids up to 3 km inside Gaza and with air strikes on senior militants.

 

Meanwhile, the IDF killed two Palestinians in two separate incidents overnight Saturday, shortly after seven Qassam rockets and 26 mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip at the town of Sderot.

 

Source