OSLO, July 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, who is currently paying a visit to Israel, told the Norwegian News Agency (NTB) on Wednesday that he had come under two missile attacks from Gaza Strip during his stay in Ashkelon.

On Wednesday, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry confirmed to ITAR-TASS that a missile strike had been delivered on a territory in the vicinity of a restaurant in Ashkelon where Borge Brende and his Israeli counterpart Avgidor Lieberman were having lunch. None of the ministers were hurt. When a missile alarm sounded, they descended to a room designed as a bomb shelter. However, that was not the only missile attack the two senior diplomats witnessed on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli army reported that the HAMAS radical movement had fired missiles from Gaza Strip against the cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod in the south of Israel even after Israel had accepted the Egypt-proposed truce.

HAMAS, which is in control of Gaza, officially notified Cairo on Wednesday afternoon that it had categorically refused to join the initiative to establish a ceasefire between the Palestinians and Israel.

The Norwegian foreign minister is on a working trip to the Middle East. Its main task is to promote Palestinian-Israeli talks, which are supposed to lead to a ceasefire. He is going to meet representatives of the State of Palestine leadership, which, as Borge Brende said, should be recognized by the global community.