IAF strikes Gaza militants poised to launch rockets at Israel

One killed and another wounded in air force attack launched just hours after Islamic Jihad said it had agreed to a cease-fire; 10 Palestinian gunmen and one Israeli civilian killed in cross-border violence since last week.
The Israel Air Force on Sunday attacked a militant cell in the Gaza Strip apparently poised to launch rockets at Israel, just hours after the Islamic Jihad announced that it had accepted an Egyptian-mediated truce to end a weekend of deadly violence. One militant from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was killed and another was wounded in the attack, according to a member of the group. Nine other Palestinian gunmen and an Israeli civilian have been killed since the violence began last week.

Islamic Jihad militants marching at a funeral for one of their men killed by the IAF, October 30, 2011.

Photo by: Reuters

Militants in Gaza have fired dozens of rockets at Israel in recent days, 20 of them on Saturday and another 11 overnight on Sunday. Three of the rockets fired early Sunday struck near Ashdod after the truce was supposed to go into effect. Two of those rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile shield and another struck the south, causing no casualties or damage. The area fell quiet shortly after those attacks and by the afternoon no new violence was reported until the IAF attack. The Islamic Jihad announced in late morning that it had accepted the proposal for a truce and would adhere to it as long as Israel refrained from launching its own attack. Islamic Jihad and two smaller factions claimed responsibility for rocket launchings over the past five days. Islamic Jihad has close ties with Iran and has chafed at the rule of rival Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip. Southern District Commander Yossi Pariente said on Sunday that the police have been put on high alert in the area. All police officers' vacations were cancelled and additional police have been brought in from other districts. Classes were canceled in most southern cities within 40 kilometers of the Gaza border. Ben-Gurion University, Sapir College and Achva Academic College have delayed the opening of the academic year due to the security situation. Ashkelon resident Moshe Ami, 56, was the Israeli man fatally wounded on Saturday by shrapnel as he got out of his car to seek shelter from a rocket launched at the south Israel city. Magen David Adom paramedics took him to the hospital with serious stomach wounds, where his situation deteriorated and a doctor pronounced him dead.

Israeli air raids on Gaza Strip after rocket attack

GAZA CITY: The Israeli air force carried out three raids early Thursday on the Gaza Strip after a rocket was launched from the Hamas-controlled territory at southern Israel, witnesses said. The raids targeted areas east and west of Khan Yunes in the south of the Strip, and a base of Hamas's armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades was hit, they said. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that aircraft had "attacked three terrorist sites in the Gaza Strip as well as an arms factory in the south of the territory." A rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip late Wednesday at an area near Ashdod in southern Israel, without causing any casualties, a military spokeswoman said earlier. The firing of the Grad rocket and the subsequent air raids were the first incidents since Israel and Hamas reached an agreement last week under which Israel agreed to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for its captured soldier Gilad Shalit. (AFP)