JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel early on Monday without wounding anyone hours after three Palestinians were killed by tank fire near the tense border of the Hamas-ruled territory.
The military said the rocket landed in an empty field near Sderot, an Israeli town near the border that frequently came under rocket attack in the years before the December 2008 and January 2009 Gaza war.
The spokesman added that five rocket and mortar rounds had been fired from Gaza in the last 24 hours after a week of near-daily attacks. No one has been wounded by the projectiles.
On Sunday three Palestinians, including a 91-year-old man and a teenager, were killed by Israeli tank shelling near the northern town of Beit Hanun, according to Gaza medics.
Israel’s military said it had targeted a group of militants who were preparing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade after earlier firing warning shots at people approaching the border fence in the same area.
The Popular Resistance Committees, an armed group, later claimed responsibility for rocket and mortar fire into Israel that occurred at around the same time and location.
The recent violence comes after months of relative calm in the wake of the Gaza war in which Hamas has taken steps to rein in smaller and more radical armed groups who are believed to be behind the rocket attacks.
Hamas is vehemently opposed to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which restarted in Washington this month after a hiatus of nearly two years. A second round of talks is to take place on Tuesday in Egypt.
In late 2008, Israel launched a devastating 22-day war on the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket attacks against its territory. The conflict cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Meanwhile, the construction of more than 13,000 new homes for Israeli settlers in the West Bank has been approved and will proceed when a partial moratorium expires this month, a watchdog group said on Monday.
The statement came after reports that Israel was planning to resume some construction in the West Bank when the moratorium expires on September 26, a move the Palestinians say would torpedo newly relaunched US-backed peace talks.
The anti-settlement Peace Now group said ground had already been broken on 2,066 units and that another 11,000 had received final government approval.
"This means that if the government decides on a de facto ‘tacit freeze’, and commits to not approve any new construction but without renewing the freeze order, the settlers can still build 13,000 housing units," Peace Now said.
It added that another 25,000 units were in the pipeline but required further government approval.
An Israeli government official confirmed on condition of anonymity that construction on around 2,000 homes could proceed without any further approval.
US President Barack Obama said last week he had called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the moratorium.
Israeli officials speaking privately have said the government will avoid making any formal announcement either way when the moratorium expires on September 26 while quietly preventing any major new construction.
Netanyahu told on Sunday his right-wing Likud party, which opposes any extension, that "there is all or nothing but there are also halfway options," according to Israel’s Ynet news service.
The Palestinians view the presence of some 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as a major obstacle to the establishment of a viable state.
They had repeatedly called for a complete settlement freeze ahead of any direct peace talks but reluctantly backed down on the demand in August after months of intense pressure from Washington.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has threatened to walk out of the current talks if construction in the settlements resumes, while Obama has asked him to show more flexibility.
