Ceasefire rattled as Gaza rocket lands in Israel

Occupied Jerusalem: A rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Saturday, causing no injuries or damage, Israeli police said, in the latest attack since a truce was reached last month.

"A rocket landed in Israel, near Sderot," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, referring to the southern Israeli town that has been a frequent target of rockets from Gaza.

There have been several rocket attacks from the coastal territory since the Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas went into effect on June 19.

Israel responded to previous attacks by reclosing border crossings with the enclave.

The truce calls on Gaza militant groups to halt rocket attacks in return for Israel gradually easing an embargo on the territory.

Meanwhile police were searching yesterday for a gunman who wounded two Israeli policemen on patrol in Jerusalem's Old City, in what officials described as a nationalist attack by a Palestinian.

The shooting, which took place just before midnight Friday at the Old City's Lion Gate, was captured on a security camera, but the assailant's face was not visible in the darkness, Israel Radio said.

The gunman fled to a nearby cemetery, and apparently was not hit by police fire, the radio said.

Forced

In Jerusalem Israeli security forces rounded up Palestinian men overnight, forcing some to lie on the ground, stripped down to their underwear in an Arab neighbourhood close to the Old City, while others stood against walls. Red police tape criss-crossed the Lion's Gate entrance, barring people from entry.

On Saturday morning, traffic crawled to a halt outside a main Israeli checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank, apparently to search for the perpetrator.

The attack in Jerusalem was the sixth since the beginning of the year, and came just a week after an Arab construction worker went on the rampage with a huge earth moving vehicle, killing three Israelis before being shot dead.

In March, a Palestinian from Occupied Jerusalem shot and killed eight Israelis in an attack on a Jewish seminary in the city.

Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said he did not believe the attacks were related. Several years ago, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, Occupied Jerusalem was hit hard by Palestinian suicide bombers sent by militant groups.

However, some of the recent attacks in the city appeared to be the acts of individuals.