Four Qassam rockets landed in open areas in and around the western Negev town of Sderot on Saturday. No casualties or damage were reported.

One person was lightly injured Friday in a Qassam rocket strike in the center of Sderot. Several other people were treated for shock.

It was the seventh Qassam rocket from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Friday, as IDF forces continue an operation aimed at destroying arms-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza.

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Earlier Friday, Egyptian police intercepted a large arms shipment en route to the Gaza Strip, amid growing Israeli concerns that militant groups may be planning to use weapons-smuggling tunnels to attack one of the kibbutzim near the Gaza border.

A raid inside Israel, through one of the tunnels being dug in the Gaza Strip, would be considered a substantial operational gain for the militant groups and would help them score a propaganda victory, IDF sources said Thursday.

Three Bedouin were arrested early Friday trying to smuggle nearly 200 crates of automatic weapons and ammunition from Egypt into Gaza, Egyptian police said.

Egyptian police seized the weapons on a truck in the village of Ballouza, some 100 kilometers east of the Egypt-Gaza border.

The smugglers were heading north to the village of Sheik Zuwayed, where they planned to veer off-road toward the border, north Sinai police Captain Essam Rizk said.

The Bedouin confessed that they were planning to smuggle the weapons to Palestinians through underground tunnels in the border town of Rafah, Rizk said.

IDF continues tunnels search
The Israel Defense Forces continued its search for arms-smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip before dawn Friday.

Palestinians fired an anti-tank rocket at IDF troops searching for tunnels along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza-Egypt border, early Friday, and Israel destroyed an arms-smuggling tunnel located inside a Gaza house. IDF troops have been searching for tunnels in Gaza since Tuesday.

Palestinians also fired six Qassam rockets at Israel on Friday morning, one of which landed south of Ashkelon. There were no injuries in any of the incidents.

The extent of the smuggling of arms and explosives from Egypt into the Gaza Strip is worse than originally estimated, IDF sources said Thursday. According to the same sources, dozens of tunnels have been used for uninterrupted smuggling activities during the past year.

According to Southern Command assessments, at least 13 tunnels have been discovered in Gaza, along with a number of shafts for uncompleted tunnels. Many of the tunnels were found close to the fence separating the Gaza Strip from the western Negev, apparently so they could be used in a raid and some of them originated inside homes close to the border with Egypt. At least six tunnels have been destroyed in controlled demolitions by IDF sappers.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in Ramallah on Thursday that "the situation among the Palestinians requires fateful decisions" and promised that such decisions would be made in the near future.

Intelligence and IDF sources say that the Hamas leadership, primarily its members exiled in Damascus, is troubled by the absence of an effective response to the continued Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip and the killing of dozens of armed militants during the past three months.

In late June, Hamas and affiliated militants raided an IDF position near Kerem Shalom, killing two soldiers and capturing Corporal Gilad Shalit, who is still being held by the organization.

In Israel, an accusing finger is being pointed at Egypt for its apparent indifference to preventing the smuggling through the tunnels. In an August 2005 agreement, Egypt guaranteed that it had "practical and real capabilities of ensuring that the smuggling does not take place. This is a matter of an Egyptian decision," said Avi Dichter, Israel's minister of public security, earlier this week.

However, the tunnels and smuggling are just one part of the chaos that has dominated the Strip since Hamas came to power.

Abbas said Thursday that "we will soon take fateful decisions to set up a Palestinian government whose diplomatic program will be in line with international decisions and decisions of the Arab states." In his struggle with Hamas, Abbas has warned that he may disband the current government of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.