After a short hiatus, Kassam rocket attacks at Sderot and environs have resumed with fury, heavily damaging a house and causing injuries.



Palestinian Authority terrorists in Gaza fired seven Kassam rockets into the Negev Saturday evening and Sunday, injuring several people and damaging a home in Sderot. Six members of a single family were treated by emergency services for shock, after one of the first rockets slammed into their home, causing extensive damage. Itzik Alfasi of Magen David Adom emergency health services told Arutz-7 that the family was miraculously spared, as the rocket demolished the western side of the house at a moment when the entire family was on the eastern side.



Two other people suffered light body injuries, and were evacuated to Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital.



The Shaar HaNegev regional council reported Saturday night that two other rockets landed north of Sderot and near the hothouses of the Nativ HaAsarah agricultural community, respectively. On Sunday morning, two more Kassams were fired, and a third one in the afternoon, causing no injuries or damage.



IAF Retaliation

Shortly after the Saturday evening rocket attacks, Israeli Air Force planes located the Kassam-launching terrorist cell, killing one of its members with a missile at their car. A second terrorist was wounded.



In a joint statement, the Islamic Jihad, the Hamas-controlled Popular Resistance Committees and the Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the Saturday rocket attacks. They declared that the barrage was retaliation for an Israeli counter-terrorism operation in Jenin earlier Saturday, in which three PA terrorists were killed - two of Fatah and one of Islamic Jihad.



The three were killed when IDF elite-unit soldiers returned fire towards a car from which fire had been opened upon them.  A fourth PA gunman was killed by IDF forces on Saturday during a gun battle in the village of Kafr Dan. The soldiers were carrying out a counter-terrorism raid when they came under repeated fire from armed men in the village. The dead man was identified by Arab sources as a PA security officer.

Islamic Jihad emphasized that reports that it had agreed to a ceasefire were untrue. Nabil Amru, a top aide to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, announced that his boss had reached an agreement with the various factions - known by some as terrorist organizations - regarding a cessation of rocket-firing at Israel.  Islamic Jihad sources said it was not bound by any such agreement, nor is there any chance that it would agree to a ceasefire in the foreseeable future.  It blamed "Isaeli escalation in Gaza and the West Bank."



In a Friday attack, Arab rock-throwers struck an Israeli bus near Kalandiya, between Ramallah and Jerusalem. No one was hurt in the incident, but the bus sustained damage.



Success in Shechem

Late Saturday night, IDF forces killed a leading bomb manufacturer, Amin Lubadeh, and another terrorist in Shechem (Nablus) during an arrest operation. Lubadeh, a wanted Tanzim terrorist, was the leading manufacturer of bombs and explosive belts in the Samaria region, and was involved in numerous attacks and attempted attacks against Israelis on both sides of the Green Line. Lubadeh's activity was funded by Iran through Hizbullah and by terror operatives in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF reports that in June 2006, Lubadeh was involved in sending out a suicide bomber for an attack in Tel Aviv. The bomber was arrested on the eve of the intended attack. In the same month, an arrested terrorist told investigators that Lubadeh had instructed him to abduct Israelis in the area of the Tapuah junction in order to negotiate the release of Palestinian Authority terrorist prisoners. Two months later, a suicide bomber captured en route to a bombing in Elon Moreh said Lubadeh was one of his dispatchers.



Lubadeh was also named by several other arrested terrorists in recent months as being in possession of bombs and explosives, as having ordered attacks, as having given suicide explosives vests and bombs to terrorists for attacks, and more.