AL QUDS, July 14: A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza killed an Israeli woman at her home on Thursday hours after Israeli troops shot dead a militant commander in a West Bank raid. It was the first Israeli killed by rocket fire over the border from Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in February. The truce has been fraying for weeks, threatening disruptions to Israel’s planned evacuation of settlers from occupied Gaza.

The rocket volley was an embarrassing setback for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who had arrived in Gaza shortly beforehand to press militants to stick to their pledge of “calm” critical to hopes of reviving Middle East peacemaking.

Militants said the rocket attack avenged the killing of a militant leader in an army raid into the West Bank city of Nablus, part of an Israeli security offensive after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five Israelis on Tuesday.

Israeli security sources said four rockets crashed into the collective farm of Netiv Haasara in southern Israel near Gaza’s fenced border with at least one hitting a house, killing a woman in her yard. The YNet media website said the woman was 20 years old.

Israel Army radio said another Israeli was lightly wounded.

Three mortar bombs fired from Gaza landed in a nearby collective farm.—Reuters