Mortar shells fired at Kerem Shalom

Gazans attack during humanitarian aid transfer, breaking 3-hour truce; over 30 rockets fired Friday.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
survey_gaza_world_pressure (photo credit: )
survey_gaza_world_pressure
(photo credit: )
Palestinian gunmen in Gaza on Friday afternoon broke the three-hour humanitarian truce, during which Israel let in vital aid to the Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing. While the supplies were being transferred, Gaza gunmen fired several mortar shells at the terminal. No one was wounded. Earlier, just after 1 p.m., when the temporary truce was supposed to have already begun, Palestinians fired three Grad-type rockets at Ashdod. In the early evening, gunmen fired two rockets at the Eshkol region, lightly wounding one person and damaging a building. During the day, rockets also hit the Sdot Negev region, Ofakim, Sderot, Beersheba, Ashkelon, and Merhavim regions. There were no other reports of wounded or damage. Later Friday, Hamas claimed that a rocket fired by their military wing struck an IAF Air Force base 45 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. In a statement posted on their website and carried on the Al-Aksa television station, the group said that they "succeeded for the first time in hitting the Tel-Nof base, the biggest base in Israel, 45 kilometers from the Strip." The claim could not be verified by the Jerusalem Post. According to the statement, the rocket was launched at 8:05 a.m., and reached the farthest point to date. "The shooting was carried out in response to the massacres that Israel is committing in the Gaza Strip," the group said, "and which, up until now, has taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinians. The IDF said it knew nothing about the report. Over 30 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israeli civilian areas on Friday. Meanwhile, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas envoy to Lebanon, rejected Thursday's UNSC call for a cease-fire, telling the al-Arabiya satellite channel that the group "is not interested in it because it does not meet the demands of the movement." Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the UN failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people. "This resolution doesn't mean that the war is over," he told the al-Jazeera satellite television network. "We call on the Palestinian fighters to mobilize and be ready to face the offensive, and we urge the Arab masses to carry on with their angry protests."