Palestinians use Russian rocket to attack Israel

Palestinian militants fired a Russian-made rocket into southern Israel today, police said, signalling a possible escalation by armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

The 122mm Katyusha rocket struck an open area near the southern Israeli community of Netivot, igniting a small fire that was put out immediately, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. No one was injured, he added.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a small Palestinian militant group, claimed responsibility.

Katyusha rockets can hit targets 12 to 19 miles away, about twice the range of the thousands of home-made Qassam projectiles that Palestinian militants have fired at Israeli border communities in recent years.

Katyushas are deadlier than Qassams and put larger Israeli communities near Gaza, including the coastal city of Ashkelon, into the range of rockets from Gaza. Netivot is 10 miles north-east of Gaza, and Ashkelon is about 8 miles away.

While today’s attack was not the first Katyusha to be fired out of Gaza, such attacks are extremely rare. The Islamic Jihad militant group claims to have fired about a dozen Russian-made rockets at Israel since March 2006, and to have “many” in their possession.

Rosenfeld had no information on how the Palestinians obtained Katyusha rockets, but in the past, security officials have speculated they were smuggled across the border into Gaza from Egypt.

Militants fired Katyushas into Israel for the first time on March 28, 2006, the day Ehud Olmert was elected prime minister.

Israeli security officials are concerned that Gaza militants could fire large quantities of Katyushas into Israel.

Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas bombarded northern Israel with nearly 4,000 of the rockets in their month-long war with Israel in the summer of 2006, bringing life in the north to a standstill and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Hezbollah also frequently fired Katyushas into northern Israel during Israel’s 18-year military occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in May 2000.