Israeli attack follows Hamas rocket firings

IHT

The Associated Press

SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2006

GAZA Israeli aircraft struck a rocket- launching cell in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two militants from the Palestinians' Hamas party, after Hamas activists fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel and threatened to turn one city into "a ghost town."

Over the weekend Israel and the Palestinians edged closer to a widening of their simmering armed conflict after eight Palestinian beachgoers were killed by an explosion Palestinians blamed on Israel. On Saturday, the military wing of the Hamas party called off a February 2005 truce that it had largely honored.

The heightening of Israeli-Palestinian tensions has coincided with attempts by the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to persuade the Hamas government to endorse a document calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, which would in effect mean recognizing the Jewish state.

Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah party, plans to hold a referendum on the document on July 26. He brushed off Hamas's call to put off the vote because of the beach attack.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel expressed "deep sorrow" at the deaths at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, but insisted the Israeli military "never had a policy of striking civilians."

The head of the military's southern command, Major General Yoav Galant, said Sunday that the military had proof its guns were not responsible, having suspended artillery fire 15 minutes before the explosion at the beach, Army Radio reported.

Galant said that Israel did not rule out a ground operation against militants in Gaza, which it left last summer after a 38-year occupation, the radio station said.

Since last year's truce, Palestinian militants from various factions have relied largely on rocket attacks in their battle against Israel. Israel has responded by bombarding militants' operations with artillery fire and airstrikes.

Overnight Saturday and early Sunday, Hamas fired 17 rockets at southern Israel, including one that hit a school in the southern town of Sederot, the Israeli military said. A man at the school was hit with shrapnel and his life was in danger, hospital officials said.

Hamas's military wing in Gaza said it had fired nine of the rockets.

"We have decided to make Sederot a ghost town," said a Hamas spokesman who gave his name only as Abu Ubeideh. "We are not going to stop launching our rockets until they leave."

Residents of Sederot demanded the government act to protect them, and the city authorities suspended school after rockets hit the town. Israeli police forces were on high alert against revenge attacks throughout the country, especially at malls and on buses, where suicide bombings have often been carried out, said a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld.

Israel halted its artillery fire against rocket-launching operations Friday until it concludes its investigation of the attack on the beach. But it continued its more accurate airstrike operations, firing missiles at Hamas militants on a rocket-launching mission near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, the army said.

Two militants were killed in that strike, and three were wounded, Hamas's military wing and hospital officials said.

Asked if Israeli ground forces might be sent into Gaza, Galant, the southern commander, did not rule out the possibility, Army Radio reported. Now that Hamas has openly resumed its rocket fire, "it and all of its supporters should expect a serious blow," Galant said.

There was no immediate reaction from Hamas's military wing or the Hamas government to the airstrike.

Hamas political leaders said after the Gaza beach killings that Palestinians had the right to respond to Israeli aggression. And they have not acted to prevent the movement's military wing or other factions from attacking Israel.

The heightened hostilities have come at a time of increased infighting between the group's militants and gunmen affiliated with Fatah.

Abbas said he hoped his proposed July 26 referendum would help to end infighting that has killed 17 Palestinians over the past month. As he announced the vote, he said that accepting a two- state solution would also help the Palestinians to achieve their dream of statehood and end a debilitating international aid boycott imposed after Hamas's rise to power.

Hamas immediately rejected the notion of the referendum, which is expected to win a clear majority despite rising anger at Israel and clashes between militants.

Abbas, elected separately last year, met with the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, in Gaza on Saturday, and made it clear the vote would be held as planned, a spokesman for Abbas said.

Abbas and Haniya were scheduled to meet again later Sunday.

In other news, an Islamic Jihad militant was killed in an explosion in his home in the northern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. Palestinian firefighters said the blast originated inside the house in the town of Jebaliya, and was not the result of an attack.