Israel threatens to hit Hamas over Qassam attacks
By Amos Harel, Haaretz
Hamas is directly responsible for firing Qassam rockets at Sderot, defense officials said Tuesday. As a result, for the first time after a long hiatus, Israeli officials threatened to attack Hamas members. The Israel Defense Forces have generally refrained from targeting Hamas operatives since the Palestinian group committed to maintaining a security "lull" in the territories about 18 months ago.
The escalated Israeli tone comes as Fatah is fighting Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees in the streets of the Gaza Strip. Palestinians fired at least six Qassam rockets at Sderot on Tuesday, lightly wounding one woman and sending another into shock. Two of the rockets hit houses in the Negev town. An examination of the rockets showed that the Qassams fired Tuesday are models that only Hamas builds. These models are more likely to cause damage than the models used by other Palestinian groups.
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