Rockets fired by Hamas at Israel amount to "terrorist attacks," German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Friday as the conflict intensified in the Middle East. "These are terrorist attacks that have only one goal: to kill people indiscriminately and arbitrarily and to spread fear," Steffen Seibert told a press conference, adding that Merkel's government defended "Israel's right to self-defence against these attacks". fec/kih/lc