Mashaal says rockets are aimed at military bases, not civilians

After death Israeli child, Hamas leader says operatives from his group don't target civilians but don't have precise weapons.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
After a quiet night in Israel, with no rocket sirens between the hours of midnight and 6:30 a.m., residents of the South were awaken when militants in Gaza set off alarms by launching projectiles.
Three rockets exploded in open territories in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, which borders Gaza to the west.
Over one hundred rockets were launched into Israel on Friday, killing a four-year-old boy on a kibbutz near the border and critically injuring a man in Ashdod.
The civilian death and injuries as a result of the renewed rocket fire are not the intention of the rockets, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told Yahoo News during an interview in Cairo on Saturday.
"We do not target civilians, and we try most of the time to aim at military targets and Israeli bases," Mashaal said.
"But we admit that we have a problem. We do not have sophisticated weapons. We do not have the weapons available to our enemy … so aiming is difficult. We do promise you, though, that we will try in the future and we will warn people … We have given warnings to Israeli civilians. We promise that if we get more precise weapons, we will only target military targets," he said.