Rockets Raise Middle East Temperature

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KIRYAT SHEMONA: Residents of this northern Israeli border town woke up this morning to the sounds of Katyusha rockets bursting round them. Three locals were injured in the attack; now the town, fearing more fire from Hizballah, will spend tonight underground. The Iranian-backed "Party of God" claimed responsibility for the strike, and the stage is set for more violence.

The political temperature in the border zone is now the hottest since April 1996, when Israel launched a 17-day assault against Hizballah militants operating north of Israel's self-declared "security zone." That bloodshed led to a truce that neither side would attack civilians. Now that agreement is broken, and Benjamin Netanyahu is muttering darkly about a severe response to future rocket attacks. It seems that any small gains in peace negotiations with the Palestinians will be negligable compared to the brewing war up north.