Rocket kills Israeli woman near Gaza border

By Yehuda Peretz

MOSHAV YESHA, Israel (Reuters) - A rocket launched by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip killed an Israeli woman on Monday as she walked towards her house, Israeli emergency services and the army said.

The woman was the second Israeli to be killed by rocket and mortar fire from the Hamas-controlled territory in less than a week. Medics said the woman was hit by a fragment and died instantly.

On Friday, a mortar shell fired by militants killed a civilian in the Kfar Aza collective farm near the Gaza border as he was working in his garden. It was the first such death in nearly three months.

Israel launched air strikes which killed five militants in response to Friday's attack.

Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad militant group, who regularly fire rockets and mortars into Israel from Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as Egypt tried to broker a truce between the Jewish state and Gaza militants.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert placed responsibility for the deaths on Hamas and said they were not reining in the militants.

"Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. They are responsible for these attacks and they are accountable," spokesman Mark Regev said.

Such rocket attacks rarely cause death or injury but sow panic in border towns. An Israeli army spokeswoman said militants had launched seven rockets on Monday and a total of 2000 missiles since the start of the year.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alison Williams)