Police resume search for rockets after loud blasts rock Eilat

No injuries in suspected rocket attack on southern city

Police stand next to a rocket that landed in Eilat in early April 2012 (photo credit: AP/Yehuda Ben Itah)

Police resumed searching for the rmeains of Grad rockets in the desert outside Eilat Thursday morning, hours after two loud blasts rocked the resort town.

Security forces suspect the rockets were fired at the city from the Sinai Peninsula. No injuries were reported.

Authorities called off the search last night after coming up empty

According to Walla News, police officers began their search in the city’s cemetery and other areas where calls to the emergency hotline originated Wednesday night, but when nothing was found, expanded the search to the surrounding area.

Police reportedly dispersed a concert taking place on the beach, ordering attendees to return to their hotels.

Rockets have been fired in the Red Sea resort of Eilat from the Sinai in the past. In April two rockets fell in open areas of the city. In 2010, five rockets were fired at Eilat, with several overshooting Israeli territory and one killing a Jordanian in neighboring Aqaba.

Terror attacks originating in the Sinai have become increasingly common as Muslim extremists have taken advantage of the power vacuum left after the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Earlier this week Israel gave Egypt permission to deploy extra troops, tanks and attack helicopters in the peninsula in an attempt to crack down on terrorist groups in the region.

 

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