Hamas claims rocket attack on Israel minister’s home

The rocket fell in the town of Sderot, about 150 yards from the home of Defence Minister Amir Peretz. Police identified the critically injured man as a member of Peretz’s security detail. A spokeswoman for Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon said a woman was killed and several other passers-by were slightly wounded by shrapnel.

Peretz planned to convene a special meeting of senior security officials later in the day, warning in a statement that, “Terror organisations will pay a heavy price.”

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told Army Radio that Israel must broaden its operations to bring about “a complete halt” to rocket fire, “whether that means a ground operation, or an air operation or other special operations.”

The Beit Hanoun shelling, which Israel said was unintended, came after Israeli troops wound up a weeklong incursion meant to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town, which the Israeli army said was a rocket-launching stronghold. But rocket attacks continued from other spots in Gaza during the incursion, and resumed from Beit Hanoun immediately after the troops pulled out.

David Baker, an official in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel’s battle against rocket squads clearly had not ended.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Palestinians acted in self-defence. “The occupation hasn’t stopped attacking Palestinians before or after Beit Hanoun, so we say resistance is a right of Palestinians,” Barhoum said.

The rocket fire coincide with Palestinian efforts to form a new national unity government.