Israel launches reprisal rocket attacks on Gaza City

Israel fired surface-to-surface rockets at Gaza City police headquarters and the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement today.

The attack was in retaliation for an earlier roadside bomb that killed two Romanian workers employed by Israel.

Dozens of people were hurt in the shelling, most of them lightly, doctors said. A three-year-old boy had cuts on his face and ears after being hit by shards of glass.

At least four rockets struck Gaza City, sending black smoke into the air.

Palestinian policemen ran out of the walled security headquarters in the centre of town, while ambulances rushed inside, even as rockets crashed down with loud booms.

Palestinian police Lieutenant Ahmed Abbas said he was sitting on a chair in the courtyard when one of the rockets hit. He said he was thrown into the air and the ground shook under his feet.

The army said the rockets were fired in retaliation for the killing of the Romanians earlier in the day. The Romanians, sent by Israel, had been working on the border fence when a roadside bomb went off. A third worker was injured by the blast.

Three rockets hit the Palestinian police headquarters, and a fourth struck Fatah offices about 400 yards from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s seaside headquarters. The facade of the Fatah office’s second floor was knocked out and black smoke came out of the building.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said Arafat was not harmed in the attack, which he called "a war of terror Israel has declared on the Palestinians".

On Wednesday, the bodies of two Israeli boys were found bludgeoned to death by rocks in a cave in the West Bank.