Israeli soldier, civilian killed as rockets pound Israel for seventh day
JERUSALEM (JTA) ““ An Israeli soldier and an Israeli civilian were killed in separate rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
Cpl. Yosef Partuk, 18, of the West Bank town of Emanuel, was killed by a rocket that landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, in southern Israel, on Tuesday afternoon.
In a separate rocket attack in the same area, an Israeli civilian was killed, another was seriously injured and 15 soldiers were hurt.
Five Israelis, four of them civilians, have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza in the last week.
Nineteen Gazan Palestinians were killed Tuesday, bringing the total number killed since Israel began its Operation Pillar of Defense on Nov. 14 to at least 130.
More than 140 rockets were fired at southern Israel in the seventh day since the beginning of the operation, including two aimed at Jerusalem. Some 56,000 military reservists have been called up since the beginning of the operation.
An air raid siren sounded in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon; two rockets fell between two Palestinian villages south of the city. Hamas claimed responsibility for the rockets aimed at Jerusalem.
Since the beginning of the operation, the IDF has hit some 1,500 targets in Gaza. Iron Dome has intercepted 389 rockets in the last week, including 51 on Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Israel on Tuesday to meet with Israeli leaders and encourage a cease-fire. She also was scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority leaders, but no one from Hamas, Haaretz reported. United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon also arrived in Israel on Tuesday to meet with Israeli leaders.Â
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