[In July, 2005, I took reporters to the porch of a Jewish home in the Northern Gaza community of Alei Sinai and took a look at the Ashkelon power station where we could easily see how close that station was to Alei Sinai, and that this would become a perfect place for launching missiles into Israel after the withdrawal. And that has come to pass. – db]

The Kassam rockets that were fired at Ashkelon two weeks ago and which led to the fatal shelling of Beit Hanoun were dual-engine rockets, and not single-engine ones, said intelligence officials.

One of the rockets landed near a school in the southern part of the city and was identified by forensic experts as a dual-engine rocket with a 12.5 kilometer range, which is three kilometers more than the “regular” Kassam rocket has.

Security officials noted, however, that these dual-engine rockets have been fired previously. A similar rocket was fired on July 4 in the middle of Operation Summer Rains. That rocket was fired out of the ruins of Elei Sinai and Dugit and landed near a high school in the heart of Ashkelon. Another rocket of its type fell a number of days beforehand near the Ashkelon cemetery.

GSS Director Yuval Diskin warned at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week, prior to the death of Faina Slotzker from Sderot, that Hamas had upgraded rockets in its arsenal that had a 12.7 kilometer range and which easily could strike at Ashkelon and areas north of Ashkelon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR