ISRAEL PREPARES FOR ROCKET STRIKES
TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's military has launched preparations to respond to
the prospect of Palestinian missile and rocket strikes on major cities in
the Jewish state.
Military sources said the General Staff has assessed that over the last week
Palestinian insurgents and the Palestinian Authority obtained weapons that
could change the balance of power with Israel. They said these weapons could
threaten such major Israeli cities as Ashkelon as well as Israeli civilian
and military aircraft in much of southeastern Israel.
"We are now operating on the assessment that the Palestinians have Katyusha
rockets that could travel at least 25 kilometers as well as surface-to-air
missiles," a military source said.
On Sunday, thousands of Hamas fighters, many of them in military uniforms,
paraded through the streets of Gaza City to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal
from the Gaza Strip. Hamas exhibited hundreds of rocket-propelled grenade
launchers and a range of missiles, including what operatives termed the
enhanced Kassam-class, short-range missile.
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