August 29, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 30, 1424

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GAZA, Aug 28: A makeshift rocket fired by the Hamas group on Thursday landed in a major Israeli city for the first time, causing no casualties or damage but raising tension on the tinderbox Israel-Gaza border.

The Qassam rocket slammed into an industrial zone in the coastal city of Ashkelon, nine kilometres from the Gaza Strip, the army said. It was the furthest a Qassam had been fired into Israel since a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in 2000.

The rocket attack on the city of 116,000 could mark the crossing of a red line for Israel, which fears similar strikes from the West Bank against the nearby densely populated centre of the country.

“It’s clear the Palestinians are now upping the ante,” Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said. “Israel cannot tolerate the use of rockets against its major cities.”

A Palestinian security official in Gaza said Palestinian forces had rushed to the area where a Hamas squad had fired the rocket at Ashkelon, preventing it from launching more rockets.

“There was a chase and a shootout,” the official said. “Our forces are still searching the area in the northern Gaza Strip.”

FUND FREEZE: In an apparent clampdown on Hamas affecting thousands of needy Palestinians, the Palestinian Monetary Authority said it had frozen 39 bank accounts held by 12 charities, most of which are widely believed to be Hamas-sponsored.—Reuters