Rockets hit Israel despite ceasefire announcement

Aug 22, 2011, 18:49 GMT

Tel Aviv - Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip said Monday they had reached informal and indirect understandings with Israel on halting rocket strikes and air raids, leading to hopes that the latest violence between the sides was coming to an end.

Israel said it had not signed any agreement with Hamas, but would monitor events and would respond to any rocket fire.

But, just hours after the announcement was made, the uneasy ceasefire received its first test when militants in the salient fired two rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, north of the enclave. The rockets caused no injuries or damage, although they did set a field on fire.

It was unclear which militia had launched the rockets, or whether they had been fired by rogue elements unhappy with the announcement made earlier in the day.

The rockets were the first to strike Israel for about 12 hours. Some hours after they struck, Israel had still not retaliated. The last Israeli airstrike in response to rocket fire came shortly after midnight Monday morning.

The oral understandings about a halt to the violence had been reached via Egyptian mediation, said Ghazi Hamad, deputy foreign minister of the Hamas administration in the Strip.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a radical group in the Strip which often acts independently of the other militant organizations, and who Israel blames for setting off the chain of events which started the latest violence, said it too was calling a 'temporary' halt to its rocket fire.

Since the escalation began Thursday, militants launched around 140 rockets and mortars at Israel, which responded with 29 airstrikes, an Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.

Reports of an imminent halt to the escalation first surfaced Sunday night. Ahmed Yousef, a senior Hamas leader, said the militia factions had agreed, via Egyptian mediation, to halt their fire, and were waiting for 'positive answers' from Israel.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would not comment on Yousef's remarks, but said only that Israel's goal in the current round was two-fold: to prevent the launching of missiles at Israeli cities, and to target those responsible for the rocket attacks.

Netanyahu and government ministers held late night consultations and decided that Israel would not respond to the continuing rocket fire from the Strip with a wide-scale operation in the salient.

A senior diplomatic source quoted by Israeli Army Radio accused Hamas of trying to draw Israel into fighting so as to weaken its international support ahead of a Palestinian request to the United Nations in September to ratify its statehood.

Calls for a ceasefire notwithstanding, Hamas was really interested in escalation, the source said, 'so Israel must do all it can to achieve calm.'

Israel's last large-scale operation in the Strip, also in response to concerted rocket fire, sparked international condemnation.

The Israeli military said about 16 rockets and mortars had been fired at Israel from the time the supposed truce was to come into effect, at 1900 GMT Sunday, until Monday morning.

Israel had also carried out one air raid, shortly after midnight, targeting a rocket launching squad, a military spokesman in Tel Aviv said.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities on either side on the fifth day of fighting.

The latest escalation began Thursday when Palestinian gunmen shot at Israeli vehicles near the border with Egypt, killing eight people and wounding 31.

Another Israeli civilian was killed Saturday night in a rocket attack on Beersheba.

Israel said the attackers had come from the Gaza Strip, and launched a series of airstrikes in retaliation. At least one leader of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza was killed.

Palestinian militants responded by firing missiles and mortars at Israel, which retaliated with more airstrikes. At least 15 people were reported killed in the salient.