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Gaza Militants Fire Mortar Salvo into Israel | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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JERUSALEM, (AFP) — Palestinian militants in Gaza fired seven mortar shells into southern Israel on Monday that fell on open ground and caused no casualties, the army said.

The Popular Resistance Committee, an Islamist coalition of militants based in the Gaza Strip, said its fighters fired 10 mortars at the Jewish state.

“The Brigades launched 10 mortars at the Sofa military installation, east of Rafah,” in southern Gaza, the group said in a statement.

“We reiterate that we will not stand by idly in response to the Zionist policy of assassinations, the latest of which was the assassination of five mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) by the Zionist enemy,” it added.

Two mortar rounds were fired at Israel on Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes on Saturday night hit central Gaza, killing five militants as they were about to launch a rocket attack, according to the army and witnesses.

The raid was one of the deadliest since Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 war on Gaza’s Hamas rulers, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, which cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.

Since Operation Cast Lead, the number of rocket attacks has dropped considerably but the Israeli army says more than 200 rockets or shells, have been fired this year.