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Barak visits Ashkelon mall
Photo: Ariel Hermony (MOD)

Barak in Ashkelon mall: We will not allow this situation to continue

Defense minister visits site of Wednesday evening's Grad rocket attack; ten injured shoppers remain hospitalized. Deputy mayor: We can hold on for a little while longer, but it cannot go on like this

"We will not allow this situation to continue; we will do everything needed to make sure it doesn't," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday morning during a visit Ashkelon's Hutzot Mall, the site of Wednesday evening's Grad rocket attack.

 

Fifteen people were wounded in the attack. Ten of them remain hospitalized at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center.

 

The Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

A spokesman for the group, Abu Abir, told Ynet: “This attack was intended as a message to Israel that if it continues to escalate the situation and reject the ceasefire proposal, Zionist residents of southern Palestine will continue to live under danger of mortal peril and this will be their own government’s responsibility.”

 

Barak toured the attack site with his deputy, Knesset Member Matan Vilnai (Labor-Meimad) and IDF Home Front Command Chief Major-General Yair Golan.

 

Ashkelon's Vice-Mayor Levi Shafran said after meeting with Barak that "a solution must be found to the rocket fire on Ashkelon. We can hold on for a little while longer, but it cannot go on like this."

 

Ashkelon's Deputy Mayor Avi Vaknin said "the feeling of helplessness is very severe. This is a big city, and we cannot reach the point where people begin to leave it."

 

Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza Thursday morning landed in an open area in the Sdot Yam Regional Council. IDF Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told Haaretz that "every community within a 40-kilometer range may come within range of the Hamas rockets: Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, even Beersheba."

 

According to him, Hamas already has in its possession several dozen rockets capable of striking targets in a radius of 20 kilometers, and that the group seeks to extend that range.

 

"If this matter is not dealt with, Hamas will bring more cities within its range of fire," Yadlin was quoted by Haaretz as saying.

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.15.08, 09:31
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