Rocket explodes in Israel, first attack from Gaza since truce

[NBCNews]

 By Allyn Fisher-Ilan, ReutersJERUSALEM - A rocket exploded in southern Israel on Tuesday in the first such attack by militants in the Hamas Islamist ruled Gaza Strip since a truce ended a week of cross-border fighting in November, Israeli police said.

The rocket caused some damage to a road near the city of Ashkelon but no injuries, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"An explosion was heard in the Ashkelon region experts searched areas experts and found one rocket that struck, damaging a road but causing no injuries," Rosenfeld said.


There were no immediate claims of responsibility by any militants in Gaza, where Egyptian mediators helped achieve a truce after eight days of punishing Israeli air strikes amid rocket attacks from the coastal territory in late November.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld  The attack came after the death on Saturday of a Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody which triggered protests in the occupied West Bank.

In the latest violence there, Israeli troops shot and wounded five Palestinians during confrontations with protesters in the Bethlehem area on Monday and a 15-year-old boy was in critical condition.

The death in disputed circumstances of Arafat Jaradat, buried in a funeral in the Hebron area attended by thousands on Monday, and a hunger strike by four other Palestinian inmates, have stoked tensions ahead of a planned visit next month by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Related: Christians, Muslims pray to halt Israeli security wallThousands of Palestinians - among them masked gunmen - took to the streets of the West Bank for the funeral of a prisoner who died in an Israeli jail. His family says he was tortured while Israel claims it was a heart attack in what threatens to becomes a new uprising. ITV's John Ray reports. Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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