Palestinian rockets kill 1, injure 2 in Israel

JERUSALEM —  A Palestinian rocket killed a woman in Israel early Wednesday in the first fatal strike in more than a year by militants firing from the Gaza Strip.

The incident prompted Israel to warn of stepped-up actions against the crude Kassam rockets, which have often disrupted life for Israelis near the Gaza border but rarely proved deadly.

“We will not allow these attacks to continue. Israel is compelled to take whatever steps it deems necessary to thwart such attacks and to allow Israelis to live in peace,” said David Baker, an official in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The 57-year-old Israeli woman died after the rocket hit Sderot, a working-class town two miles from the border. A guard for Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, whose home is not far from where the rocket struck, was injured.

A separate attack later in the day seriously injured a 17-year-old boy in Sderot, which is frequently targeted by Palestinian militants. The salvos were among more than a dozen rockets fired into Israel, at least four of which hit the city of Ashkelon.

The militant group Islamic Jihad and the military wing of Hamas each said it had launched rockets to avenge the deaths of 19 civilians. The Palestinians died last week when Israeli artillery shells struck a neighborhood in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel said the shells went off course because of problems with the targeting system.

Peretz summoned security officials, threatening a harsh response to Wednesday’s rocket strikes.

Late Wednesday and early today, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at five buildings in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The military said the buildings served as weapons caches or centers of militant activity for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. Civilians were warned to leave the areas before the strikes, the army said. Palestinians reported four people injured.

Israel generally has been quick to answer Kassam attacks with force. But the military has been unable to end the nearly daily barrages despite raids in northern Gaza, airstrikes and artillery shelling against the guerrillas who fire from fields near the border.

The latest attack elicited fresh outrage among Sderot residents, who have demonstrated outside Peretz’s home to protest what they consider inadequate steps by the government to protect them. Parents have gone to court to demand that schools be reinforced to withstand the homemade Kassams, but the government says it is unable to provide complete protection.

“We have grown accustomed to the state’s dismissive approach toward the people of Sderot and the area,” Yaffa Malka, a hairdresser in the town, told Israel Radio. “And it is a shame that the world, state, government and press do not take the Kassams as a serious problem until they claim a life. The people here are living in terrible distress.”

The army said that about 1,000 rockets had been launched at communities in southern Israel this year, and more than 100 have been fired since Nov. 1.

Kassam strikes have killed seven Israelis, all but one in Sderot, since June 2004. The most recent death before Wednesday was in July 2005. Israeli business leaders say the attacks have caused about $9 million in economic damage during the last three years. Militant groups, including the ruling Hamas movement, vowed to retaliate after the Israeli shells killed the Palestinian civilians last week.

That incident occurred after the Israeli army wrapped up a weeklong raid in Beit Hanoun directed against the rocket-launching teams. It was the first time Israel’s military had seized a Gaza town after exiting the coastal strip last year.

The fatal shelling and Beit Hanoun raid killed 80 Palestinians; an Israeli soldier also died in the fighting. Peretz ordered an end to the shelling after the civilian deaths.

The controversy underscored the difficult choices facing Israeli leaders over how to answer the persistent rocket attacks.

Olmert and Peretz are under added pressure on security matters after coming under heavy criticism for the army’s performance during the summertime conflict with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, which ended inconclusively after 34 days.

Wednesday’s fatality prompted calls among hawkish Israelis for wide-ranging military actions against the Kassams in Gaza, where security officials say militants also are smuggling in weapons and explosives.

Other Israeli officials said only an agreement with the Palestinians could bring an end to the rocket attacks.

“If there were a simple solution, it would have been found a long time ago,” said Meir Sheetrit, the acting justice minister and a member of Olmert’s Kadima party. “The solution, however, is complicated like the problem, and this only emphasizes the fact that a military operation alone will not solve the problem.”

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ellingwood@latimes.com