Security forces overnight Wednesday arrested eight wanted militants across the West Bank. Three Islamic Jihad members were arrested in the village of Dir al-Atzun northeast to the city of Tul Karm; a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was arrested at the Jenin refugee camp. South of the city of Bethlehem the army arrested two Hamas militants, and two more Hamas members were arrested in the environs of the city of Ramallah. On Wednesday Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched eight Qassam rockets at southern Israel, with at least one of the homemade projectiles landing in the area of south to the town of Ashkelon. Another rocket fell not far from the Erez crossing in the northern GAza Strip. There were no reports of any injuries or damage to property. The renewed rocket assault comes a day after Palestinians fired more than a dozen Qassams at the Negev, defying IDF attempts to hinder the fire by creating a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip. Two of the rockets were aimed at Ashkelon and the rest at the western Negev.
Tuesday's shelling was in apparent retaliation for a Monday night Israel Air Force strike in the northern Gaza Strip, which killed three Islamic Jihad commanders believed to have been involved in Qassam launchings. There were no injuries or damages reported in the Qassam firings. Some of the rockets appear to have fallen short of their targets, landing within the Strip, others hit open areas of the Negev.