Clashes precede UN chief Ban's visit to Gaza

Feb 2, 2012, 7:31 GMT

Tel Aviv - Palestinian militants launched rockets and Israel fired 'warning shots' at targets in northern Gaza, ahead of a visit to the coastal enclave by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday.

Ban was scheduled to arrive in Gaza in the late morning, after meeting officials in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.

Gaza militants fired four rockets at the southern Israeli region of Sha'ar Hanegev Wedes, a military spokesman in Tel Aviv said. They exploded in fields and caused no injuries.

The Israel Air Force responded by firing 'warning shots' at sites near Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, near the border with Israel.

Ban was also scheduled to visit southern Israeli communities near Gaza, which are the frequent targets of rockets and mortars fired from the Strip.

In Ramllah and Jerusalem, he called on Israelis and Palestinians to continue direct talks begun in Amman, but he also condemned ongoing Israeli construction in West Bank settlements.

Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling the strip, have largely observed an informal truce since the early 2009 Gaza war, but rounds of violence have resurged from time to time.

At the time, about 1,400 Palestinians were killed - many of them civilians - and thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged, when Israel incessantly bombed and shelled Hamas targets in the densely-populated enclave for three weeks, in a bid to curb the rocket and mortar fire at its southern communities.

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