VIDEO- IDF officials have affirmed that Hamas had planned Tuesday morning to kidnap a soldier while the Qassam rockets and mortar shells were being launched from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel.
Army intelligence and ground forces in the area were able to prevent the attack, they said.
Hamas' military wing, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the firing of 10 Qassams and over a dozen mortar shells, saying that a five-month ceasefire with Israel along the Gaza border "no longer exists," the French news agency AFP reported.
A statement issued by the brigades in Gaza City said the attack was in response to "Israel's crimes in the West Bank."
The rockets and mortars landed in open fields in the western Negev; no injuries were reported. The army responded by dispatching helicopters to intercept the gunmen behind the attacks. Missiles were fired at launch pads used to wage the attacks, the army said.
Military officials said the barrage was merely a diversion to allow Hamas gunmen to kidnap an IDF soldier as part of a more extensive attack.
“The army was prepared for such a scenario; the Southern Command forces responded correctly,” a military official told Ynet.
'This is Hamas' true face'
Following the attack the Hamas-led Palestinian government issued a statement calling for both sides to honor the ceasefire.
"The government reiterates its desire that the calm continue and be preserved in the way that achieves the national interests of the Palestinian people," government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the violation of a five-month ceasefire by Hamas was an exception and would not be repeated, while Israel should show restraint to avoid a deterioration in the security situation.
"The violation of the truce is an exceptional event that will not last," said Abbas at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome. "I take this opportunity to appeal to Israel to show the necessary self-control so that this will not happen again."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
consulteda number of his military advisors about a possible response to the attack.
A senior aide to the prime minister told Ynet that "for the first time, the Hamas government has taken responsibility for a criminal terror attack which includes the firing of missiles into Israel. Israel needs no evidence to prove that this is Hamas' true face."
Ali Waked, Shmulik Hadad and Reuters contributed to the report
First published: 17:01, 04.24.7