JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A rocket attack from the Gaza Strip killed two Israeli children at a southern town on Wednesday, the first such deadly Palestinian missile strike for three months, medics said.The director of the Barzilai hospital, Emile Hai, told Reuters a baby and a young boy were declared dead on arrival from the town of Sderot, which has borne the brunt of rocket attacks. Israel Radio said the boy was four years old.
Hamas militants claimed responsibility for firing the Qassam missiles and said the attack was in defiance of a big Israeli military raid into northern Gaza designed to stop rocket launching.
Rockets attacks pose a particular complication for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to quit the occupied Gaza Strip next year because of the fear that they could continue if troops and settlers pulled out.
Medics said at least 12 people were wounded in Sderot.
Palestinian militants have fired hundreds of homemade rockets during a four-year-old uprising. Two Israelis have previously been killed in such attacks -- a young boy and a man who were killed in Sderot in June.
Less than an hour after the attack on Sderot, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at an unidentified target near the Gaza refugee camp of Jabaliya, close to the zone used to launch the rockets.
