Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza into Israel on Saturday without causing any casualties or damage, an army spokesman said. The rocket struck an uninhabited area in the western part of the Negev desert, the spokesman said. It came just two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas relaunched direct peace talks broken off when Israel launched a devastating offensive against Gaza in December 2008.
The Hamas movement which controls the territory is vehemently opposed to the negotiations and carried out two shooting attacks against Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank in the run-up which killed four and wounded two. Hamas has vowed to carry out further attacks against Israeli targets in the coming weeks.