"If We Wouldn't Hit Them They Would Fire Tonight as Well"

A senior officer told Ynet that "an initial investigation we held found that, during the firing of the missile no civilians were spotted around the vehicle or in its vicinity, and when missiles were on their way to the target, no gathering was spotted."

... The targeted cell was on its way to carry out an attack ...

... The cell carried out Qassam rocket attacks at Israel Tuesday morning: "It's clear to everyone that if we wouldn't hit them they would come back and fire (rockets at Israel) tonight as well."

The area chosen to strike the vehicle was not crowded. During that time there was almost no traffic on the road except one vehicle that passed very far from the vehicle carrying the terrorists. Two missiles were fired at the same time and struck the car accurately.

"We still don't know if the civilians were injured as a result of the explosion that took place in the car or due to other reasons," said the officer.

He added that civilians may not have been detected in the vicinity because the area may have been covered or because it was difficult to identify people.

The officer said that the vehicle was traveling during the strike.