Katyusha fired from Gaza, hits Netivot

Palestinian militants on Sunday fired a Katyusha rocket from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, police said. The rocket, identified as a Grad-type Katyusha, landed in the area of Netivot, in the Negev Desert.

The Popular Resistance Committees armed organization claimed responsibility for the attack, which coincided with a number of mortar attacks against the Negev on Sunday.

There were no damage or injuries caused.

The mayor of Netivot said that the government had denied the town funds intended to provide for civil rocket defense. He said the stated reason for denying the funds, was that the town is located 11 kilometers from the Gaza border, rather than within a 10-kilometer radius the government had set, Israel Radio reported.

The Russian-invented Katyusha has a longer range than the more makeshift Qassam rocket that has been fired by the thousands at Negev towns and villages. Most Katyushas fired in the area are fired by the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah organization. But Palestinians fired a Katyusha at the southern Israel city of Ashkelon a year ago.

Nice to see that all that goodwill Israel received from abandoning Gaza is being paid back in spades. Not to mention Israel's abandonment of the Philadephi corridor that allows weapons smuggling to be increased from Egypt.

A similar goodwill gesture from Judea and Samaria would bring a large part of Central Israel, all the way to the Mediterranean, vulnerable to similar attacks.