Palestinian Rocket Fired 10 Miles into Israel on Eve of Bush Visit

Palestinian Rocket Fired 10 Miles into Israel on Eve of Bush Visit
The Mideast News Service
Palestinian terrorists fired a GRAD-122 rocket, which hit the northern side of Ashqelon in Israel. The rocket, which was launched from north of Beit Lahiyya in the northern Gaza Strip, reached further into Israel than any previous rocket from Gaza – 10.5 miles, approximately 2.5 miles less than its full range. No casualties were reported. Three organizations took responsibility: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the Islamic Jihad.
So far, the Palestinians have managed to reach the southern outskirts of Ashqelon, approximately 6 miles north of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group announced in December 2007 that it has dozens of 13.5 mile rockets.
Hamas has announced that it launched 50 rockets onto Israel on Wednesday, in retaliation against the “ongoing Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people.”
A range of 13.5-miles from the northern Gaza Strip places over 150,000 Israeli citizens in range of Palestinian rockets.
The Israeli army held an operation on Wednesday night in the southern Gaza city Khan Yunis. In one incident, the IDF fired on a house killing four Palestinians. IDF soldiers reported that armed men fired on them from inside the house. The IDF attack claimed the life of Sami Hamdan, 28, a senior member of Islamic Jihad. Hamdan’s mother and sister were also killed in the attack according to Palestinian reports.
In another incident in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF killed a Hamas member and wounded 10 other Palestinians.
United States President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority on January 8. Bush, who will be accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas.
‘Abbas is currently visiting Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to coordinate positions and formulate a united Arab message to be conveyed to Bush.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Bush better ask Condi how to handle this, after her telling the world she understood how the PLO felt comparing them to her childhood.

“For Dr. Rice, the struggle of the Palestinians is analogous to that of the African-Americans for civil rights and she identifies with the Palestinians. She recalled what it Juxtaposition of the African-American campaign for civil rights and the Palestinian (armed) struggle seems strange.meant to travel in segregated buses as a little girl in Alabama. She also compared the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to Reverend Martin Luther King, because, in her mind, both were committed to peace. According to reporter Aluf Benn, Rice views Abbas as committed to the struggle for Palestinian independence and, like Martin Luther King, opposed to terror and violence (Haaretz, October 16, 2007). “