PM Olmert: "Escalation" in terror activities from the Gaza Strip

      Palestinians in Gaza reported Sunday morning that a teenager was killed and four other people were wounded in IDF operations next to Al -Barouj in the central strip. They said the dead teen was not a member of a militant group. An army spokesman confirmed that a force has been operating in the area since dawn but had no information about any casualties. The army is operating in the area to curb border-rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Katyusha rocket which struck northern Ashkelon on Thursday an "escalation" in terror activities from the Gaza Strip. "We will continue to respond, to plan, and to attack those responsible for terror in every corner of the Gaza Strip," he told ministers during the weekly Cabinet meeting, adding that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had been instructed to intensify the Israeli military response to rocket attacks. Military sources told Yediot Ahronot on Sunday that the Katyusha rocket was manufactured in Iran. Also on Sunday, an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip killed a member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a terror group allied with Hamas, Palestinian officials said. The strike came hours after the group said it fired a barrage of rockets into Israel. The IDF said the aircraft fired at two armed men in the area from which rockets had been fired earlier and one of the men was seen to be hit. On Saturday, Gaza terrorists fired 26 mortar shells and seven rockets into Israel, the military said. The PRC claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. (21,01)