Blast Rocks Gaza During Protest

Witnesses Say 1 Palestinian Boy Killed As Israelis Rally

(CBS/AP)  A 3-year old Palestinian boy was killed and nine Palestinians were wounded late Tuesday in the northern Gaza Strip when rockets launched by militants misfired and landed in Palestinian areas, rescue workers said.

Witnesses said militants fired three rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot where thousands of Israeli opponents of the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza had gathered in a demonstration. Two of the rockets fell in Palestinian areas and the third fell in an open field near Sderot.

Among the wounded were five children, aged 4 to 11, including four children of Hisham Abdel Razek, a senior official in the ruling Fatah party and a former Palestinian Cabinet minister. Abdel Razek's wife was also wounded.

The dead boy was identified as Yasser Adnan Ashkar. His 11-year-old brother Ali, was in critical condition, hospital officials said.

Meanwhile, settler leaders said they planned to defy a military order and lead their followers on a march to Gaza's settlements. CBS News reports that by mid-afternoon, 1,000 protesters had arrived at a temporary camp outside Sderot.

More than 15,000 police and soldiers took up positions in southern Israel to prevent the marchers from reaching Gaza, which has been declared a closed military zone, and sabotaging the pullout scheduled to begin in two weeks.

The march, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday, is the settlers' second effort in two weeks to breech the barricades preventing them from getting into the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza. If they fall short again, it would be a devastating blow to the protest movement.

"Our goal has been stated openly: to go Gush Katif, to our besieged brothers," Gaza settler leader Avner Shimoni told Channel 2 TV. "It is impossible to stop the masses of Israel who have only one goal, to reach Gush Katif and overturn this cruel decree."

After days of negotiating with the authorities, settler leaders were given permission to hold their rally Tuesday in Sderot, an Israeli town that borders northern Gaza and has been the frequent target of rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

One of the stray rockets fell on the Ashkar house in the Beit Hanoun area north east of Gaza City. Abdel Razek's family was visiting at the time, witnesses said. The house was severely damaged.

Minutes before the rockets was fired, Palestinian militants shot an anti-tank rocket at an Israeli convoy traveling to the isolated Israeli settlement of Netzarim Tuesday, settlers and the army said. There were no reports of injuries.

Palestinian residents nearby said the explosion, just south of Gaza City, was followed by gunfire. The army said it was carrying out searches in the area.

The violent Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy.

Militant attacks against Israelis had dropped off after a February truce between Israel and the Palestinians. In recent weeks, however, as the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza approaches, militants have stepped up attacks to try to portray the Israeli pullout as a military victory for the Palestinians.