Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Police Confirm Twin Katyusha Strike on Northern Israel

Hana Levi Julian

Israel Police confirmed Tuesday morning that a pair of Katyusha rockets were fired at northern Israel overnight by terrorists from an Islamist terror gang in southern Lebanon, the "Bader Battalions of Jihad." The previously uknown group vowed in a statement to launch further attacks, saying "We promised our people Jihad. Now we have yet again struck the Zionists in occupied Palestine."

Both of the 122-mm missiles hit the northwestern Israeli community of Shlomi, near Rosh HaNikra, damaging a home and an electricity pole. Shlomi is located close to the Lebanese border.Parts of one of the short-range Katyushas were found on the balcony of an apartment in the town, according to the HNN news service.

Shlomi town council head Gabi Na'aman told IDF Army Radio in an interview that several residents thought the noise they heard at approximately 2:00 a.m. was thunder. Rain poured down in the north overnight. "This morning, we woke up and discovered they were Katyushas," said Na'aman.

Israel Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld confirmed that the rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon but did not say where the missile parts may have been produced.

A similar rocket was fired from northern Gaza at Ashkelon last Thursday, the fifth Katyusha to be launched at the southern coastal city in recent years. IDF sources said that the Katyusha was apparently Iranian-made.

Reactions to the attack were swift.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak was cautious, telling reporters that Israel would not respond to what he said was a "grave" attack, adding he would not change the "status quo" in the north. He said that he would study the incident with the IDF and then "think and consider how to proceed."

Likud Knesset Member Yuli Edelstein said pointedly that the 2006 Second Lebanon War "harmed our deterrence capabilities and caused us to absorb attacks without response or gains."

Likud Central Committee member and head of the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction, Moshe Feiglin commented, “On the eve of the publication of the findings of the Winograd Committee, [Hizbullah chief Hassan] Nasrallah is sure to remind us who won in the war and who remains under threat with no ability to respond to missile attacks from Syria and Egypt, who are making war against us by way of Hizbullah and Hamas.”

Syria is known to back Hizbullah and recent evidence has shown Egypt assisting Hamas in smuggling terrorists and weapons into Gaza.

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