Gaza rocket wounds 14 in Israel mall as Bush visits
ASHKELON, Israel (AFP) — A rocket fired by Gaza militants slammed into a shopping mall in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, wounding at least 14 people, as US President George W. Bush began a three-day visit to the Jewish state.
Three of the wounded were in a serious condition, one of them a young girl, emergency services said. Two babies were also hurt.
"They hit a shopping mall in the centre of Ashkelon," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, denying reports people were still trapped in the rubble.
Ben Cohen, who works at a restaurant in the mall, said the explosion struck the third floor of the building, and other witnesses said part of the building collapsed.
"There were a lot of people and the centre emptied rapidly," Cohen told reporters.
The attack came as Bush was in Jerusalem at the start of a visit to join celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.
Palestinians were simultaneously commemorating what they call the Naqba , or catastrophe -- the exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees on the creation of Israel.
The White House swiftly condemned the attack on Ashkelon and accused the Islamist Hamas movement, which seized control of Gaza last June, of "not being interested in peace."
"We condemn this terrorist attack by Hamas and offer our condolences to those who were affected," said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"It's clear that Hamas isn't interested in peace or helping the people of Gaza lead better lives."
It was the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) that claimed responsibility for the attack, in separate statements.
In their statement to Gaza media, the armed wing of the PRC said it had photographed the launch of what it called an "advanced missile."
The Islamist Hamas movement, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since June, and
the Islamic Jihad movement, which launches frequent rocket attacks from the territory, praised the attack but did not claim it.
Shortly before the attack, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert emerged from his talks with the US president saying "Israel will not be able to tolerate continuous attacks against innocent civilians."
He also said Israel holds Hamas responsible for any attack launched from Gaza, and warned: "We hope that we will not have to act against Hamas with the military power that Israel has in its pocket."
Earlier in the day four Palestinians were killed in Israeli military raids in Gaza, and Israel has threatened a wider operation against the Hamas-run territory if the rocket attacks continue.
At least 467 people have been killed since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks at a US-hosted conference in November, the vast majority of them Gaza militants, according to an AFP count.
On Monday, a woman was killed by a rocket in southern Israel, the second fatality in three days of Gaza attacks.
Shortly before Wednesday's attack, Bush hit out at Gaza's Islamist masters.
"Hamas's objective -- stated objective -- is the destruction of the state of Israel. We'll stand strongly with Israel as well as stand strongly with the Palestinians who don't share their vision," he told reporters after his talks with Olmert.
Hamas has repeatedly said that it is ready to agree a truce with Israel lasting 50 years or more. But it has consistently refused to recognise the Jewish state on one inch of historic Palestine.
