Hamas Rockets Bring Israeli City in Range

It was a few minutes after 5am on Saturday when Silvio Grinberg, half asleep, heard the warning on the neighborhood loudspeakers: "color Red, color Red."

He and his wife Alba would normally wake and prepare breakfast at that time and sit at their table with its view over the Israeli city of Ashkelon and the Mediterranean. But on that day they stayed in bed, a decision that almost certainly saved their lives. Moments later a 122mm Grad rocket, fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, crashed through the ceiling of their sixth-floor apartment and into their kitchen.

"I didn't understand what was going on," said Grinberg, 61. "Then I heard a boom and the glass breaking. I was thrown into the air and onto the floor. For five hours I had no idea who or where I was."

He returned briefly to his apartment yesterday to salvage what clothes and documents he could. The rocket had carved a hole in the kitchen ceiling, where twisted metal struts stuck out of the concrete.

That rocket was one of 15 fired into Ashkelon during five days of conflict in Gaza last week. None caused any serious casualties, but Israel regards them as a serious threat - and that has reignited the fight over the Gaza Strip.

It was not the first time that the city, home to 120,000, had been targeted: in the previous two years 11 rockets have hit Ashkelon. But Israel's alarm comes from the increased frequency of the attacks and the provenance and longer range of the rockets involved. A senior Israeli security official said the Grads, with a range of about 12 miles (20km), were built in Iran and smuggled into Gaza, probably when the Egyptian border wall was briefly demolished in January.

But this remains an unequal conflict. There have been thousands of Palestinian rockets fired - 2,000 only last year - and they have killed 13 people in Israel in the past four years. But in the last five-day operation alone at least 106 Palestinians were killed. Human rights groups and the UN say at least half of the dead were not involved in the fighting.

"Now we are worried that the Palestinians will try to increase the scope of the area that will be covered by the barrage," said Isaac Herzog, Israel's welfare and social services minister who also sits in the security cabinet. "The government needs to defend its people, to take necessary actions even if they are extremely painful and tragic," he said, as he visited one of the damaged homes in Ashkelon yesterday.

He said Hamas, the Islamist group which won Palestinian elections two years ago and then seized Gaza, was trying to create a "deterrence effect", which Israel could not allow. His government would not negotiate with Hamas because the group does not recognize Israel, refuses to give up violence and because such talks would "undermine ... any moderate partner" on the Palestinian side.

Israeli leaders have warned more conflict is likely in Gaza and last night troops in armored vehicles crossed into central Gaza. There were reports of fighting between the soldiers, who entered through the Kissufim crossing, and Palestinian militants, although it was not clear if Israel was starting a major operation.

Ashkelon's officials said the city could not afford to endure rocket attacks over a long period. It relies on tourism and houses several important installations including a major power station and the world's biggest desalination plant.

Roni Mehatzri, the mayor, briefed a group of foreign defence attaches brought by the military to Ashkelon yesterday. "What did we do that we deserve to live with only 20 seconds warning to take shelter?" he asked. "Our only request is to live in a normal way." Later, Walter Grinberg, 27, stood in his father's apartment and said the rockets had changed the city. The family arrived five years ago from Argentina. "It was a dignified place to live. Now it became a war zone," he said. He advocated tough action in Gaza: "When the army enters these areas it is to defend us."