Palestinian rocket hits Israeli city; none hurt

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Palestinian militants hit an Israeli city with a rocket from Gaza for the first time on Tuesday, causing no casualties but drawing a pledge of harsh retaliation from Israel while it was already in the midst of a military offensive.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the rocket fire on the coastal city of Ashkelon a “major escalation,” coming just hours after a deadline set by the militants holding an Israeli soldier passed with Israel rejecting demands to release about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners. The militants said they would not harm 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit – if he is still alive. But they warned they would provide no further information about him, leaving his condition unclear.

Early today, Israeli aircraft struck the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza for the second time in a week, the military said. Witnesses said missiles hit the main structure again and damaged a building next to the ministry that has been used since the first attack. Rescue workers said five people were wounded.

The rocket flew 7 miles through the air and exploded in the courtyard of a school in Ashkelon, a city of 110,000 on Israel’s coast north of Gaza. The school was empty at the time and no one was hurt.

Though militants have fired many of the small, homemade rockets in the direction of Ashkelon, this was the first one to hit the heart of the city, displaying a longer range than most previous ones and bringing the threat of rocket barrages to a major Israeli population center for the first time.

Zeev Schiff, veteran military analyst for the respected Israeli Haaretz daily, wrote that the rocket attack was “an unequivocal Hamas invitation to war.”

In the hours before the rocket attack, Israeli forces were already operating in northern Gaza looking for tunnels, explosives, weapons warehouses and other facilities used by militants, the area army commander said.

However, the troops stayed outside of Palestinian towns, as they have since Israel started its offensive in Gaza a week ago. Olmert indicated that might change in response to the rocket attack on Ashkelon.

“For this attempt that was meant to harm Israeli civilians who live in the sovereign borders of Israel, there will be far-reaching consequences,” Olmert warned at a U.S. Independence Day celebration at the home of Richard Jones, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. “The Hamas organization will be the first to feel this.”