April 8 (Bloomberg) -- A Palestinian rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near the Israeli town of Sderot, the Israel Defense Forces said, in the first such attack since January.
The Qassam rocket was fired late yesterday from an area near Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, the Defense Forces said on its Web site. It landed in the Negev desert near Sderot and didn't cause any injuries or damage, the Defense Forces said.
The incident is ``severe,'' Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterday, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. Mofaz called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to take all steps to prevent further missile attacks, the newspaper said on its Web site.
The Palestinian Authority deployed security forces in the northern Gaza Strip after Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to end violence when they met at a summit on Feb. 8 in Egypt. Israeli forces carried out operations in the northern Gaza Strip in January to stop rocket and other attacks.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, reached an agreement on March 17 with armed Palestinian groups to end violence against Israel until the end of 2005.
There is a gap between the Palestinian Authority's declarations and the actual steps it takes to prevent terrorism, Mofaz said yesterday, according to Haaretz.
The U.S. government said yesterday its citizens should avoid traveling to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
``The potential for further violence remains high'' from groups opposed to the peace process, the State Department said in an e-mailed statement from Washington. ``Resentment against efforts to promote peace, and ongoing Israeli military operations in the occupied territories, could incite further violence.''
West Bank Security
Relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have improved since the election of Abbas in January and the summit in Egypt. Israel last month handed over security to Palestinian forces in the West Bank towns of Tulkarm and Jericho.
Sharon said last month that the international peace plan for the Middle East won't progress unless the Palestinian Authority dismantles the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The peace plan, sponsored by the U.S., United Nations, the European Union and Russia, is aimed at establishing a Palestinian state. The steps to implementing the accord require the Palestinian Authority to take action to stop terrorist attacks.
Israel's Cabinet on March 13 approved the dismantling of unauthorized settlements in the West Bank, a measure required under the peace proposal.
