A rocket fired from Gaza struck a shopping center in southern Israel Wednesday, wounding dozens of people. AFP:
Visiting US President George W. Bush paid a 60th anniversary tribute to Israel as a democracy challenged by "terrorists" on Wednesday just before a rocket attack wounded 14 people in a shopping mall.Photo credit: AFP
Bush called Israel a "thriving democracy" which "like other democracies, is being challenged by extremists and terrorists."
Shortly afterwards, a rocket fired by militants from the Gaza Strip slammed into the mall in thesouthern city of Ashkelon, wounding 14, including two babies and a young girl.
Ben Cohen, who works at a restaurant in the mall, said the explosion struck the third floor of the building, and other witnesses said part of the building collapsed. Bush was in Jerusalem on a three-day visit to join Israel's celebrations for its 60th anniversary.
Palestinians were meanwhile holding solemn commemorations of what they call the Naqba, or catastrophe -- the mass exodus of refugees at the birth of the Jewish state.
"We must be steadfast and we must be strong in the face of those who murder the innocent to achieve their objectives" Bush said in his first comments after the rocket attack.
His national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe blamed the attack on the Islamist Hamas movement which has controlled Gaza since ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas last June.
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Ha'artz reports 90 people were injured, 4 seriously.
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