Palestinians retaliate after Rantisi killing

Palestinians fired a barrage of home-made rockets and mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements and towns inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Over two days, 15 Qassam rockets have hit Israeli targets, wounding one Israeli and damaging at least five structures, the army said.

It was one of the most intense rocket barrages in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Two rockets hit the northern Gaza settlement of Nissanit today, one landed in the Erez industrial zone in northern Gaza and three in the nearby Israeli communities of Sderot and Kibbutz Niram.

Militants also fired two missiles at the settlement of Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip, damaging a house, the army said.

Israeli tanks and a bulldozer moved in and cleared some land near Nissanit. Several dozen Palestinian youths threw stones and troops responded with machine gun fire, Palestinian security sources said.

The rocket attacks began soon after Israel killed Rantisi and two of his bodyguards in a missile strike on his car Saturday night, three weeks after it killed the militant groups’ spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Following Rantisi’s killing, Hamas vowed to carry out “100 unique reprisals.”

Israel said the killings were part of its campaign to weaken Hamas in advance of a proposed pullout from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements in 2005.

“We have to fight the massive fight against terror and especially Hamas,” said Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, who toured army bases in Gaza today.

In the West Bank, the Israeli military raided the town of Silwad, where overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was born. About 70 people were arrested during house-to-house searches.

Mashaal, who lives in Damascus, the Syrian capital, is an Israeli target