jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 2, 2009

A Grad rocket hit Ashkelon Tuesday morning, the first instance of such a
rocket being fired into Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead
approximately two weeks ago.

There were no reported casualties in the incident, but some damage to the
surrounding area was reported.

On Monday night Gaza terrorists fired a Kassam rocket that hit a kibbutz in
the Sha'ar Hanegev region. No one was wounded and no damage was reported in
that attack either.

Earlier Monday, minutes after a mortar shell struck an open area in the
Eshkol region, IAF warplanes responded, launching a missile at a vehicle in
the southern Gaza Strip.

According to witnesses in the area, one person was killed and three others
were wounded in the attack. The IDF said that the men were part of the cell
which fired the mortar shell into Israel.

Late Sunday night, IAF planes struck Hamas targets throughout Gaza after at
least 15 Kassam rockets and mortar shells had hit the western Negev since
the beginning of the day.

There has been growing frustration in the political echelon at the
increasing Palestinian truce violations. On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud
Barak said that while Operation Cast Lead was effective in damaging Hamas's
capability to threaten Israel, the day may come when a similar operation
would be necessary.

"The quiet in the South is a result of the serious blow dealt to Hamas in
Gaza, and even if it takes a little more time and a few more shots are
fired, this is the nature of events of this kind," Barak told Army Radio,
but he added that "if we have to, we will hit Hamas again."

The defense minister also said that Israel was interested in Egyptian
cooperation in the battle to halt arms smuggling into Gaza through tunnels.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised a "harsh" and "disproportionate"
response to the renewal of rocket fire into Israel when he addressed the
cabinet on Sunday, shortly after a rocket landed near a kindergarten in the
Eshkol region.

"The cabinet's position from the outset was that if firing continues against
residents of the South, there will be a sharp Israeli response that would be
disproportionate vis-á-vis the firing," he said.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders, meanwhile, were said to be
close to reaching a Gaza cease-fire deal in talks with Egyptian officials in
Cairo.

Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff, and Brenda Gazzar contributed to this report.