HOLY BLOOD

Palestinian militants fire rockets nearly daily at Sderot and other Israeli border towns near Gaza. But by reaching Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people about 11 miles north of Gaza, Hamas raised the stakes dangerously. It is one of the largest cities in southern Israel, home to Mediterranean beaches, a college and strategic installations like an electric plant and a water purification plant.

Since the first rocket hit Ashkelon on Wednesday in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed five militants, Israel's military has killed more than 100 Palestinians. Three Israelis have also died in the violence.

Six people were wounded in Ashkelon on Saturday after one rocket landed next to City Hall and another in the marina area. Another rocket struck Ashkelon on Sunday, slightly wounding one person, medics said.

The rockets have killed 13 people, wounded dozens more, caused millions of dollars in damage and made daily life unbearable.




Ashkelon residents took to the street on Saturday night urging government action against the Gaza militants. On Sunday, the city was relatively calm, maintenance crews collecting debris and paving over craters left by rockets hitting parking lots.

The army over the weekend installed its "Code Red" siren system in Ashkelon to alert of any future incoming rockets and on Sunday, Israeli emergency services began providing first-aid courses to instruct residents how to act in an attack.

The government, however, is determined not to let militants scare people away from Ashkelon.

Israeli officials assume that new and improved rockets, along with Iranian-trained rocket-launchers, were smuggled into Gaza when its border with Egypt was breached in January, bringing Ashkelon into its range.


An Israeli official who sparked an uproar by using the word for "holocaust" to describe what Israel might do to the Gaza Strip said his comment had been manipulated by the media but acknowledged he could have chosen another term.

In a radio interview Friday discussing Palestinian rocket fire at Israel and Israel's military response, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said, "As the rocket fire grows, and the range increases ... they are bringing upon themselves a greater 'shoah' because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate."

The Hebrew word "shoah" refers to the Nazi Holocaust, but also means "disaster," and a spokesman for Vilnai clarified he meant the latter.

Nonetheless, many international media translated it as "holocaust" and the statement was taken by many in the Arab world to mean that Israel was threatening the Palestinians with genocide



On Saturday, Palestinian leaders from both Hamas and Fatah called Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip a "holocaust" and "genocide."

Egypt opened its only crossing with the Gaza Strip to receive wounded Palestinians on Sunday, a day after 54 people were killed in Israel's latest offensive against militants firing rockets from the territory.

Egypt sent 27 ambulances to the Rafah crossing to transfer 150-200 wounded Palestinians to hospitals in the Sinai Peninsula and other cities on the mainland.

Sunday was the first time Egypt has agreed to open the crossing since the militant Palestinian group Hamas blew up part of the border wall on Jan. 23, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to flood across the frontier unchecked for 12 days.

The U.N. Security Council issued a media statement early Sunday condemning the escalation of fighting in southern Israel and Gaza and urging Israelis and Palestinians "to immediately cease all acts of violence."

The statement, though not a formal resolution, also stressed that the violence "must not be allowed to deter the political process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aimed at establishing two states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace and security."

Council experts will meet Monday to consider a draft resolution circulated Saturday night by Libya on behalf of the Palestinians and Arab nations. It would strongly condemn the killing of innocent civilians, including children.

Israel's public security minister, Avi Dichter, visited Sderot on Thursday, but was forced to cut a news conference when an air-raid siren went off and his guards rushed him to a concrete shelter. Before Dichter arrived in the town, two people were hurt by rocket fire, including one of his bodyguards.

Dichter told reporters he had no quick solution for the rocket problem, but rejected suggestions of opening a dialogue with Hamas. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group.

The latest spike in violence began Wednesday, when five Iranian-trained Hamas militants, including two rocket masterminds, were killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza. In retaliation, Hamas fired dozens of Qassam rockets as well as longer-range Iranian-made Grad rockets.

Nabil Abu Rudainah, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that Israel's military actions "meant only one thing: the Israeli government ... aims to destroy the peace process".

Olmert acknowledged the threat that "the continuous shooting of Qassam rockets against uninvolved, innocent civilians" pose a threat to stability, but vowed to hold his regular meetings with Abbas.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, said: "These stupid missiles being launched - firecrackers, but at the end they have killed Israeli civilians - we condemn this, clearly, openly, straightforwardly.

"But at the same time, we condemn all the Israeli incursions into Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians, destroying their houses, preventing them from having a normal life," he said.

Hamas officials struck a defiant tone yesterday. "We will never have equipment comparable to our enemy, but we are working all the time to have enough to make any aggression a regrettable adventure for the enemy," said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam.

In Tokyo, visiting Olmert said that Israel will go after the militants. We will reach out for the terrorists and we will attack and we will try to stop them, he said.

Rice, who briefly met with Olmert in Tokyo, said Hamas rocket attacks need to stop, but also expressed concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged calm on all sides.