Gaza Rocket Lands In Israeli City, No Casualties

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack from Palestinian armed factions in Gaza.

A rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Tuesday but caused no casualties, Israeli officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack from Palestinian armed factions in Gaza, still reeling from a 22-day Israeli assault that the Jewish state said was designed to punish the Islamist Hamas group for such attacks.

There have been occasional rocket and mortar attacks since a Jan. 18 ceasefire took hold and these have drawn Israeli air strikes on Gaza. But Israel, which holds an election next week, has said it does not want to launch a new major offensive.

Ashkelon's mayor Benny Vaknin told Israel Radio that the Grad rocket "struck the heart of a residential neighbourhood".

"Luckily, it landed in an open area," he said. Ashkelon is 12 km (7 miles) from the coastal Gaza enclave, beyond the reach of the improvised rockets often fired by the Palestinians. Factory-produced Grads, which are smuggled into Gaza from neighbouring Egypt, have a longer reach.

"To the best of my knowledge when it's a Grad rocket, it's from Hamas," said Vaknin.