30 Gaza Rockets Strike Negev, Lightly Wounding One Person

Haaretz
January 9, 2009

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/636/30-gaza-rockets-strike-negev-lightly-wounding-one

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of at least 20 rockets at southern Israel on Friday, just hours after the United Nations passed a resolution calling for an immediate truce between Israel and Hamas.

At least seven rockets hit the western Negev by 8 A.M., all of them striking cities previously considered out of the range of rocket fire.

Four Grad rockets exploded in open fields near Be'er Sheva at around 7 A.M., two more rockets struck the Ashkelon area just after and minutes later, a seventh hit Ashdod. There were no casualties reported in any of those incidents.

Another two rockets exploded in fields near Ashkelon just before 8 A.M. Three more Grads struck near Be'er Sheva at around 10 A.M. and another hit the area before noon.

Two rockets exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council just before 9 A.M., lightly wounding one person. About half an hour later, three more rockets struck the Negev city of Sderot. Another two exploded in fields outside of the city at aroun 11 A.M. There were no reports of casualties in that incident.

Another barrage struck Ashdod, Ashkelon and Yavneh toward early afternoon.

At least 30 rockets struck the Negev on Thursday, leaving four people wounded and a number more suffering from shock. Two people were seriously wounded from rockets which exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council.

For the first time since fighting began in the Gaza Strip 13 days ago, rockets also hit northern Israel. Lebanon on Friday announced that it had arrested a cell of Palestinian militants responsible for firing the rockets.

As fighting raged in the south, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Friday morning, prior to the meeting, that Israel would consider its own security interests before agreeing to a truce.

Meanwhile, Israeli, Egyptian and other foreign diplomats sought to negotiate a separate formula for bringing the fighting to an end.

Israel's political-security cabinet met Friday morning to determine whether to expand the ground operation in Gaza.

Three more IDF soldiers killed in Gaza

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, bringing the Israel Defense Forces' death toll to nine since Israel began its ground invasion of the coastal territory last week. A tenth IDF soldier had been killed at the start of Israel's air offensive on Gaza, by a Qassam rocket which struck his base in the western Negev.

Capt. Omer Rabinovitch of the Golani infantry brigade was killed in the northern Gaza Strip during clashes with Hamas gunmen, the third IDF soldier to die in one day. Another soldier was lightly wounded in the incident.

Sgt. Amit Robinson, 20, from Kibbutz Ma'agal, was killed Earlier Thursday by Palestinian sniper fire in the Strip. Robinson fell while participating in a joint operation involving infantry troops, combat engineers and armored corps soldiers. Another soldier was lightly wounded in the incident, as well.

News of Robinson's death was released just after that of Maj. Roey Rosner, 27, of Holon, who was also killed hours before in a separate gunbattle with Hamas militants

Rosner, an officer in the Kfir infantry brigade, was fatally wounded when his unit was hit by an anti-tank missile while on patrol in the former settlement of Netzarim. Another soldier was also lightly wounded in that incident.

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