One dead as rockets hit Israel and Jordan

Several rockets apparently fired yesterday from Egypt’s Sinai towards the Israeli resort of Eilat killed one person and wounded five in the nearby Jordanian port of Aqaba but caused no casualties in Israel.

At least five blasts were heard in the morning, with one rocket exploding in open ground outside Eilat, two crashing into the Red Sea and the rest hitting Jordan, Israeli police said.

Jordanian officials said a Grad-type rocket slammed into Aqaba, less than 10 kilometres from Eilat, injuring six people. One, a 51-year-old taxi driver, later died.

“This terrorist and criminal act, which serves shady agendas, is strongly condemned,” Information Minister Ali Ayed said in a statement.

He said a probe showed “the rocket was fired from outside Jordanian territory.” Another official said “the rocket was fired from southwest of Aqaba” – a reference to the Sinai Peninsula.

Eilat police chief Moshe Cohen said initial reports suggested the rockets had been fired from “the south”, also an apparent reference to the Sinai, which lies some 10 kilometres south of Eilat.

But an Egyptian security official denied any attack had been launched from the peninsula, a mountainous desert region which flanks the Gulf of Aqaba.

“The rockets did not come from Sinai. To launch rockets from Sinai would need a great deal of logistics and equipment and that is impossible considering the heavy security presence in the Sinai Peninsula,” the official said.

“We have a heavy security presence in Sinai, particularly along the Egyptian Israeli border. No suspicious activity has been reported anywhere in Sinai.”

Jordanian Interior Minister Nayef Qadi said the rocket smashed into a street near to the Intercontinental Hotel. He identified those hurt as two taxi drivers, a member of the tourist police, a security guard and an engineer.

The United States later called the rocket attacks that hit Israel and Jordan “deplorable” and said the actions seemed designed to sabotage plans to revive direct Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.