Rocket lands near home of Israeli defence minister

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired hundreds of crude rockets at Israeli border towns in more than five years of fighting. Israeli has launched air strikes at rocket squads, but has been unable to stop the barrage.

Yesterday, Israeli forces killed three members of an Islamic Jihad rocket squad in the military’s first ground incursion into Gaza since Israel’s pull-out from the coastal strip last year.

Today, Islamic Jihad fired three Qassams, two of which landed in a residential area of Sderot, the Israeli military said.

One of those rockets punched a hole through the roof of a home. Israeli media reported that it struck a few dozen yards from Peretz’ home. The army declined comment on that report. A second rocket landed in a garden.

Paramedics treated two Sderot residents for shock, and Israel responded with artillery fire at Gaza.

Eli Moyal, the mayor of Sderot, harshly criticised the government’s response.

“Our luck I that the Palestinians don’t know how to aim precisely,” he told Israel Radio. “There are only two ways to stop this – either destroying the area where they fire the rockets from or controlling that area.”

However, the Israeli military has been reluctant to launch a major ground offensive in Gaza.

Yesterday’s incursion lasted just five hours, and troops sneaked two miles into Gaza.