Gaza rocket strikes near Israel minister's house

SDEROT, Israel, May 31 (Reuters) Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip today came close to hitting the home of Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz.

A house about 100 metres (330 ft) from Peretz's residence in the town of Sderot was damaged by one of three rockets that Islamic Jihad militants said they fired into southern Israel.

The attack was launched a day after Israeli commandos, mounting the first ground raid in the Gaza Strip since Israel's pullout last year, killed three members of an Islamic Jihad rocket squad and a policeman who came to their aid.

Inspecting the damage at his neighbour's home, Peretz told reporters the Israeli military, which shells rocket-launching areas in the northern Gaza Strip daily, would ''find a way'' to prevent such attacks.

Peretz also cautioned Gazans that militant groups firing the rockets ''are bringing them disaster''.

The Palestinian government under Islamist group Hamas accused Israel of inviting more violence.

''The Israeli government is responsible for the escalation because they are continuing their aggression,'' cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.

Israeli gunners pounded northern Gaza with artillery fire in response to the latest rocket launchings. No casualties were reported on either side of the frontier.

Islamic Jihad said the rockets were a response to Israeli raids and Friday's car bombing death of a senior group official in Lebanon. An Israeli government source denied at the time that Israel had anything to do with the killing.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad gunmen said they had fired a new longer-range rocket they had manufactured, based on the Russian-made Katyusha, with a maximum range of 20 kms (12 miles).

''We will continue to bombard Zionist settlements established in the land of Palestine,'' an Islamic Jihad spokesman said.

REUTERS SHB RK2025