Israel rocket victims to sue Palestinians for damages

Around a dozen residents will hand an Israeli court a lawsuit demanding that the Palestinian Authority pay some 50 million shekels (11 million dollars) in damages, the top-selling Yediot Aharonot reported.

Palestinian militants have fired hundreds of the improvised rockets on areas bordering the Gaza Strip both before and after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the territory last September ending a 38-year presence.

Although notoriously inaccurate, several Israeli civilians have been killed and dozens wounded in such rocket attacks over the past five years.

"We are demanding damages for everything, the destroyed shops, the rutted roads and the expenses for the children's psychological treatment," one of the plaintiffs, Ariyeh Cohen, was quoted as saying by the paper.

"Someone has to foot the bills and their is no reason for us to pay them," he added.

The Israeli army has been unable to stop the rocket fire despite equipping Sderot with an early warning system and repeatedly bombarding a unilaterally imposed "no-go" zone in northern Gaza from where such rockets are launched.

"Up until today, some 400 makeshift Palestinian rockets have been fired on Sderot and have caused five Israeli deaths, including three children," Yossi Cohen, a spokesman for the Sderot municipality told AFP.

Since the Palestinian intifada broke out in 2000, 4,967 people have been killed according to an AFP count. The vast majority have been Palestinian.

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