Police report of Qassam fire was erroneous
Police retract Friday evening report of two Qassam rockets landing in southern Israel, point to malfunction in monitoring system
Police gaffe: An apparent malfunction in the system used to monitor rocket attacks resulted in an erroneous report that two Qassam rockets had landed in southern Israel on Friday evening.
Police had originally said two rockets fired from northern Gaza had landed in open areas in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.
Earlier in the week Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the closing of Gaza's border crossings in response
to the repeated ceasefire violations from the Palestinian side.
Though the area has been relatively quiet since Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza in June, intermittent rocket and mortar fire has been recorded every several days.
More than 20 Qassam rockets have been fired towards the western Negev, as well as numerous mortar shells. Local residents say the attacks have become daily, and many worry the fragile truce may be at an end.
On Tuesday evening a Qassam rocket landed in an open area in a kibbutz belonging to the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, and on Monday a Qassam landed in an open area adjacent to a kindergarten in the town of Sderot. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused.
Following the rocket attacks chairman of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, Alon Shuster, said: "This is not the first time that a Qassam has been fired towards Israel, while there may be two sides committed to the ceasefire, in actuality the Palestinian side is finding it very difficult to control all the militias and the Qassam fire.
"The attack today serves as a reminder that the government of Israel should be working to fortify the communities in the line of fire as soon as possible."
