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Rockets that landed in Israel have been launched in the last three days from Gaza and, Israelis say, Egypt’s Sinai desert. The World’s Matthew Bell reports on what Hamas may be up to.

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DAVID BARON: A rocket landed in the Jordanian port of Aqaba today. It killed one person and injured four others. Few observers believe that the rocket hit its target. The widely held assumption is that that target was Israel. The Israelis certainly think that’s the case as The World’s Matthew Bell reports from Jerusalem.

MATTHEW BELL:  The man killed in Aqaba this morning was said to be a 51 year-old taxi driver. Jordan’s information minister, Ali al-Ayed said the rocket exploded in the city’s main street at 7:45 in the morning.

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BELL: He said it was a Grad-type rocket, which has a range of about 25 miles. Aqaba, Jordan sits just over the border from the Israeli resort city of Eilat. Israeli police say 5 rockets in all were aimed at Eilat but strayed off target. Israeli officials said that the rockets were probably fired from the Sinai desert in Egypt. No one was hurt in Eilat. But Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, says his government is treating that attacks with the utmost severity.

DANNY AYALON: It’s a very serious attack perpetrated by a global jihad and their proxies here. It’s a whole network, Hamas and Hezbollah. It’s an attempt not just to attack Israel and the neighboring countries, but also to destabilize the entire situation in the Middle East.

BELL: Egypt denied that the Sinai desert was used for the attack. But Israeli authorities believe Islamic militants are active in the area. That’s one reason Israel gives for building a fence along its border with Egypt. Today’s incident comes only three days after another Grad-type rocket hit Israel. That one was apparently fired from Gaza. So this is right after the explosion?

MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.

BELL: This hardware store owner in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, started shooting video with his iPhone right after a rocket exploded nearby. There was a lot of broken glass, but no serious injuries. Everyone seems pretty relaxed.

MALE SPEAKER: Yeah. Because we’re used to it and we deal with that and we live with this, unfortunately. But, it’s our life.

BELL: Israel’s prime minister wasn’t so blasé. Benjamin Netanyahu called the rocket that fell in Ashkelon an attack in a residential neighborhood against Israeli civilians and children. Israeli war planes quickly responded by bombing targets in Gaza. And a high-level Hamas military commander was reportedly killed. Another Palestinian rocket hit the Israeli town of Sderot yesterday. It caused no injuries. But it provoked more Isareli air strikes. Hamas militants may not have been behind the most recent rocket attacks from Gaza. The attacks could have come from smaller, and more violent, extremist groups, while Hamas looked the other way. That’s the view of Anshel Pfeffer. He’s a defense analyst with the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.

ANSHEL PFEFFER:  Hamas don’t want to go back all the way to open warfare, like we had a year and a half ago.

BELL: But experts say Hamas would like to stir things up in the region. The Islamic group does not want to see its Palestinian rival in the West Bank resume peace talks with Israel. At the same time, Hamas wants to maintain its ceasefire with the Jewish State. Palestinian political analyst, Hani al-Masri says it’s a dangerous balancing act.

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BELL: Masri says it’s too early to talk about a collapse of the ceasefire. But he warns that the situation is getting more violent. For The World, I’m Matthew Bell, in Jerusalem.

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