Police in central Israel are preparing for long-range Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza, a senior police commander told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

“We assume that in the next round, some rockets will fall in central Israel,” Cmdr. Bentsi Sao, head of the central district, said.

During the recent escalation with Palestinian terrorists, a couple of rockets slammed into territory that falls under the police’s central district, while the remainder fell in the southern district.

The southern district is well accustomed to rapidly dispatching bomb squad units to the sites of rocket explosions after gaining over a decade of experience in dealing with the attacks.

But as rocket ranges grow, the police’s central district has found itself needing to prepare for rockets as well.

Sao said his district is now working with the IDF’s Home Front Command in anticipation of rockets that could strike central areas.

Meanwhile, the website of Islamic Jihad in Gaza carried an interview with terrorists responsible for the firing of rockets at Israel.

“We said... we would expand the range of rocket fire – and we hit Ashdod, Ofakim, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi,” one of the operatives boasted.

“The enemy knows that the al-Quds Brigades [of Islamic Jihad] is capable of making good on its promises,” he added.

Islamic Jihad fired most of the approximately 200 rockets directed at Israeli cities, towns and villages. Of all the terrorist organizations in Gaza, it is the group most openly aligned with, and sponsored by, Iran. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 03/26/12)