TEL AVIV (PIC)– An Israeli settler was killed on Sunday and a second was seriously wounded when a homemade Palestinian Qassam missile struck their vehicle in the Israeli settlement of Sderot the Hebrew Ha’aretz newspaper reported.
According to the paper the missile had initially wounded the two settlers who were rushed to the Brazilia Medical Center in the coastal city of Ashkelon in the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands for treatment where one of them succumbed to his wounds.
Sderot according to Israeli official sources appeared as a ghost town after its mayor Eli Moyal urged suspension of school classes due to the tense and unsafe security condition in it.
Hamas Movement took the credit for the attack and vowed more retaliatory attacks against IOF positions and Israeli settlements adjacent to Gaza Strip.
The Movement also confirmed that its armed wing the Qassam Brigades unleashed at least three missiles on Ashkelon city targeting the main electricity plant there.
“We will turn our missiles into a nightmare that chases the Israelis wherever they go in retaliation to the IOF troops’ incessant killing of innocent Palestinian citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip” the Movement said in a military communiqué a copy of which was obtained by the PIC.
50 Palestinians were killed and dozens others were wounded in a relentless Israeli aerial and land bombarding of Palestinian homes and government buildings in the tiny Strip over the past ten days.
On Saturday Hamas fighter Emad Shabana died of wounds he had sustained in an Israeli air strike on his vehicle last week in the suburb of Sheikh Redwan in Gaza city.
Hamas won battle of the rockets:
For his part the military correspondent of the second channel in the Israeli TV affirmed that Hamas Movement had indeed won the battle against the IOF troops which he dubbed as “battle of the rockets”.
He also added that Hamas started firing its missiles on Israel in a bid to get rid of the internecine fighting with Fatah faction and it succeeded in that goal in addition to cautiously firing its rockets on Israeli targets despite the intensive IOF military operation in the Strip.
“After it achieved its goals and placed Israeli settlements under the mercy of its missile force Hamas started to talk about a truce after Sderot turned into a ghost town” said the Israeli correspondent.
He also pointed out that Israeli war minister Amir Peretz gave the Israeli occupation army a relative freedom to intensify bombarding operations on Palestinian facilities in Gaza Strip although the IOF leadership had asked for broader authority to act against the Palestinian factions.
On Saturday Israeli warplanes carried out at least 12 raids on positions of the PA interior ministry’s executive force killing five Palestinians and wounding tens others.
A number of Israeli raids were reported in different parts of the densely populated Strip but no casualties were reported.
On Sunday Israeli Apache choppers opened their heavy machinegun fire on Palestinian homes in Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza and the southern Gaza Strip town of Abasan Al-Kabeera.
For its part the Islamic Jihad Movement announced it had established its own artillery unit that commenced its formation with hitting a number of IOF troops’ positions in Kissufim Kerem Shalom and Sofa crossing point in eastern Gaza Strip.
