A mortar round was fired at a Jewish settlement in the West Bank overnight without causing any casualties, in the first such attack since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising last fall, an Israeli military spokesman said Saturday.
The shell exploded in a settlement near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, the spokesman said, cited by the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper and AFP.
Until now, Palestinian mortars have only been fired at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
The spokesman said that mortar rounds had hit the Jewish settlement of Gilo, which Israel classifies as part of occupied Jerusalem.
The land where Gilo is located, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war along with east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.
The Israeli army seized the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Jala in late August to stop sniper attacks, and pulled out after reaching an agreement with the Palestinians to silence their guns – Albawaba.com
