Several Qassam rockets and mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip hit Israel's western Negev town Wednesday morning as U.S. President Geroge W. Bush arrived in Israel to kick off his 8-day Mideast tour, said a spokesperson of Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The strikes caused no casualties or damages, the spokesperson told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said that a Palestinian militant was killed and five others wounded on Wednesday morning in an Israeli artillery strike on northern Gaza Strip.
They said the Israeli army artillery fired three surface-to-surface missiles at a group of militants who were trying to launch homemade rockets from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia into Israel.
Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad movement's armed wing, has claimed responsibility for launching eight homemade rockets from northern Gaza Strip at Israel.
In a press statement, the brigades said that the homemade rocket attacks at Israel "is to protest the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush, and to say that he is not welcomed in Palestine."
For the first time since he took office in 2000, the U.S. president is visiting Israel and later the Palestinian territories, which is aimed at advancing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in the wake of the Annapolis peace conference in November last year.
At an U.S.-sponsored international conference on Mideast peace process in November in Annapolis, Maryland, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to strive for a final-status agreement before the end of 2008 at the Annapolis conference.
But talks between the two sides have been low-key with no tangible progress.
Source:Xinhua
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