A house on a kibbutz in the western Negev sustained a direct hit from a Qassam rocket Friday evening. The rocket caused some damage but no injuries.

The Qassam was the ninth to be fired at southern Israel by Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday.

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Two rockets landed on Israeli territory close to the Kissufim border crossing with Gaza. Earlier, two Qassam rockets landed in the Karni Crossing area and two others landed in the Eshkol region. A seventh rocket landed in the western Negev, and an eighth Qassam rocket landed in an open area near a wstern Negev kibbutz.

There were no injuries or damage reported in the incidents.

Three rockets were fired at Israel on Thursday, two of which landed in an open field south of Ashkelon. A third rocket landed in an open area near the western Negev town of Sderot. There were no injuries or damages in any of the attacks.

President Moshe Katsav met with victims of Qassam attacks and Gush Katif evacuees on a visit to Ashkelon on Thursday. He also toured the strategic facilities in the city which have come under rocket attacks in recent days.

The president also met with the family of Sderot resident Adir Bassad, 14, who was critically wounded in a rocket attack on the city on Tuesday. The teen's mother said her son's condition had improved and that he had begun speaking again Thursday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave the Israel Defense Forces permission on Wednesday to attack rocket-launching cells in the Gaza Strip as long as they are identified shortly before the launching, but the Prime Minister's Office said the Israeli commitment to the cease-fire in Gaza still stands.

His decision to authorize only pinpoint operations while generally upholding a policy of restraint raised ire among senior IDF officers Thursday who argued that that the only effective way to curb rocket attacks was to send forces into the northern Gaza Strip.