Rockets fired towards Israel from Sinai peninsula

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 August 2010 09.11 BST

A salvo of rockets was fired this morning towards the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat from the Sinai peninsula. There were no casualties or damage in Eilat but there were initial reports of four injuries in the nearby Jordanian city Aqaba.

Five rockets were fired shortly before 8am, according to early reports. One reached open ground on the outskirts of Eilat, a seaside resort popular with Israelis. Three landed in the Red Sea and one hit Aqaba, with some reports saying four people were injured.

The Israeli army said it was searching the area around Eilat and co-ordinating with the Jordanian and Egyptian militaries.

A Jordanian interior ministry source told Reuters: "The Grad rocket landed in a public street near a major five star hotel and caused four injuries, with three persons lightly wounded and the other casualty in a serious condition."

The attack follows a series of rocket launches from Gaza into Israel over the past few days. One Katyusha rocket reached the city Ashkelon causing panic among residents. Israel retaliated with air strikes on Gaza City, killing a senior Hamas commander, Issa Batran. Hamas's military wing pledged to avenge his death.

Further Israeli airstrikes destroyed two tunnels and last night the home of a second senior Hamas commander, Alaa al-Danaf, was rocked by an explosion in which more than 20 were injured. Israel denied involvement.

Attacks by militants on and around Eilat are unusual, although two rockets were fired from the Sinai at the Israeli city in April. A suicide bomber killed three people there in January 2007.

According to Israel, Hamas uses the Sinai Peninsula as a smuggling route for weapons into Gaza. The militant organisation has close links with the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned Islamic organisation in Egypt.