JERUSALEM (AFP) — A rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Thursday, the fourth to do so since a truce between Israel and the Islamist movement took effect a week ago.
The rocket caused no casualties or damage when it struck an open field near the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which before the truce had weathered near-daily attacks since Hamas seized power in Gaza a year ago.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement, said it carried out the attack and also launched another rocket directed at the southern city of Ashkelon.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed a second rocket was fired but would not say whether it struck Israeli territory.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs railed against the truce in a statement, charging that Hamas had imposed it on other Gaza factions and that Israel did not respect it.
"We affirm to the criminal occupier that the rocket operations will continue. Our continuing operations are a response to Israeli Zionist violations, for there has been no Israeli adherence to the truce," it said.
Palestinians and UN officials have said the Israeli army fired shots across the border on several occasions over the past week, injuring a farmer and another man.
But the army denied this, saying there had been only one incident in which troops fired warning shots in the air, not causing any casualties.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was holding consultations on the latest rocket attack, his spokesman Mark Regev said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, widely favoured to succeed Olmert should the premier be unseated by a recent corruption probe, said after the attack that Israel should respond militarily to any violations of the truce agreement.
Israel has meanwhile maintained the closure of Gaza's borders which it imposed after a previous rocket attack on Tuesday.
"The Gaza crossings are still closed," said military spokesman Peter Lerner, adding that this did not include the Erez terminal, which remained open for humanitarian purposes.
The Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas stipulated a gradual easing of the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian enclave but Israel closed the crossings again after Tuesday's rocket fire.
Islamic Jihad said it carried out Tuesday's rocket attacks, which lightly wounded two people in southern Israel, in retaliation for the death of one of its top commanders in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, which, despite the misgivings of the Palestinians, is not covered by the ceasefire.
The group later said it would nonetheless abide by the Gaza truce.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad urged Israel to reopen the border crossings.
"We have 1.5 million of our people with a sense of not having much to lose. That situation must end," Fayyad told a news conference in Prague with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.
The writ of Fayyad's government has been limited to the West Bank since Hamas ousted forces loyal to the Palestinian leadership in June last year, triggering the Israeli blockade.
While the World Bank says the embargo has crippled the Gaza economy, Israel insists it has always allowed in enough supplies -- mostly foreign aid -- to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Meanwhile, an Israeli negotiator was expected to press Egyptian authorities not to reopen the Rafah border crossing -- Gaza's only one that bypasses Israel -- until Hamas frees Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured two years ago.
Israeli envoy Ofer Dekel was due to meet Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who played a key role in mediating the Gaza truce that went into effect on June 19.
Hamas insists that talks on Shalit's release are unrelated to the truce agreement and that he will be freed only in exchange for jailed Palestinians.
Hamas has demanded the release of 450 prisoners jailed by Israel in exchange for Shalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
