Last update - 00:00 22/07/2007
Woman hurt in Negev Qassam strike; IAF kills two Jihad men
By Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
A woman student sustained light wounds to her hand Sunday when a Qassam rocket fired by Gaza militants hit the entrance to the Sapir College near the western Negev town of Sderot.
Several minutes later, another rocket landed near a school in the town itself, causing damage to property, but no injuries. The militant Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.
A very short time later, an Israel Air Force strike killed two Jihad members in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, witnesses and hospital officials said.
The men were apparently standing next to a rocket launcher. The Israel Defense Forces said its aircraft hit a rocket-launching site.
The air strike came hours after IDF troops killed two Hamas men in northern Gaza.
On Sunday night, the IAF launched a second air strike on militants in Gaza, witnesses said, this time targeting Hamas members traveling in a vehicle on a coastal road. But the militants went unscathed, witnesses and Hamas sources said.
The IDF later said that the attack had targeted an Islamic Jihad militant.
Olmert: No court battle
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet Sunday that he does not want to battle the High Court of Justice over its ruling that the government must reinforce all schools in the Gaza area, to protect them from rocket fire, by the beginning of the next school year.
"I don't want to fight the High Court of Justice, the court is an authority that I respect," said Olmert during the weekly cabinet meeting.
On Friday, the prime minister criticized the court's ruling, saying: "The court will not decide what to reinforce and when."
Olmert repeated the stance Sunday. "The government and only the government will decide regarding priorities in the issue of reinforcement," said the prime minister.
"That is what we did in the past, and what we shall do in the future. There is a lot that can be done on this issue, and all of it will be done within the framework of government activity."
The prime minister also referred Sunday to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss' scathing report on the home front during the Second Lebanon War.
"The report's 582 pages point to serious gaps in the issue of assistance to the home front," said Olmert.
"These gaps were formed over many years. We have started dealing with the issue, and this morning I will inform the government of what has been done and what we intend to do."