Ceasefire in pieces after day of violence
The five-month-old Middle East ceasefire appeared to be unravelling as Israeli strikes on a van filled with rockets and a West Bank hideout killed six Hamas militants following a Palestinian rocket barrage on an Israeli town and a suicide bombing that killed six.
In an effort to stop the rocket fire, Palestinian police fought Hamas gunmen in a daylight gun battle in the streets of Gaza City that left two teens dead and 25 others wounded in the worst internal fighting among Palestinians in recent years.
The violence threatened to intensify. Israeli troops massed at two makeshift camps outside Gaza, and defence minister Shaul Mofaz told army commanders last night to plan for a ground operation in northern Gaza, although a raid would be delayed to give the Palestinians time to take action themselves.
Hamas threatened revenge against Israel for the air strikes, which appeared to signal Israel’s resumption of targeted killings of Hamas leaders.
The fighting left in tatters the ceasefire deal Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reached at a February summit in Egypt, which led to a marked decrease in violence and helped Abbas fend off Israeli demands for a crackdown on the militant groups.
But the new violence called into question Abbas’ policy of persuading the militants to voluntarily end attacks, and Israel and the US were pressuring him to tackle the armed groups.
The tough Palestinian police action in Gaza yesterday morning suggested that Abbas might be responding. Palestinian security chief Nasser Yousef said his forces would “not hesitate” to restore law and order and ordered rocket attacks to be stopped by all means.
However, the militants continued attacking Israeli targets throughout the day, launching dozens of mortar shells and rockets from across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli air strikes yesterday afternoon were a sign that Israel had run out of patience with Abbas.
“We are taking these measures to stop these attacks as the Palestinian Authority refuses to do so,” said a statement from Sharon’s office.
Israeli aircraft targeted Hamas militants hiding out in caves about two miles from the West Bank town of Salfit, killing one militant and wounding another, the military said. Troops on the ground went into the area and killed a surviving militant who fired at them with an automatic weapon.
Clashes between the army and stone-throwing protesters later broke out and a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded in the head, hospital officials said.
Soon after the first air strike, Israeli aircraft destroyed a van carrying a group of militants and a cache of home-made rockets as it raced through a Gaza City street, killing four Hamas militants, the army and Palestinian officials said.
The army said the air strike targeted senior Hamas weapons manufacturers on their way to launching more rockets at Israeli targets.
Israel launched another air strike last night at a group of militants in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, the army said. Hamas said one of its fighters was moderately wounded. Later, an Israeli drone launched a missile at a group of militants trying to launch rockets in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the military said. Witnesses said the militants escaped unharmed.
Israel later launched another round of air strikes. One attack, near a garage and a United Nations food warehouse in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City injured a man and a girl.
The army said two strikes in Gaza City and a third in Khan Younis were aimed at buildings Hamas used to make weapons.
Another strike in Khan Younis targeted a group of militants armed with mortars and home-made rockets, witnesses said.
Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, condemned the air strikes and said they were counter-productive.
“It comes at a time when we are trying to maintain the rule of law and the (unity) of our authority, and the only thing these Israeli escalations and attacks will lead to is to undermine our ability to do so,” he said.
Hamas promised to retaliate and blamed Israel for starting the violence.
Earlier this week, a Palestinian police officer and a militant were killed by army fire. Those army raids came after an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed five Israelis in an attack in the coastal city of Netanya.
In firing rockets and mortars, Hamas was also sending a message to Abbas, underscoring their demands to share power in Gaza after Israel withdraws next month.
Sakher Bseisso, a Palestinian Cabinet minister, said the militants were leaving Abbas little choice but to crack down. “Hamas is trying to impose its control on the ground,” he said.
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