Rocket fire raises concern over Gaza truce

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Renewed rocket fire from the Gaza Strip targeted Israel on Wednesday amid concern that violence could flare up further as a six-month truce in and around the Palestinian territory ends this week.

The Israeli army said 10 rockets were fired at southern Israel from the tiny coastal strip, causing no casualties or damage.

Islamic Jihad said its armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, fired five rockets in retaliation for Monday's killing by Israeli force of one of its members in the occupied West Bank.

The radical movement had claimed similar attacks on Monday, which prompted two air Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

In a statement claiming responsibility for the rocket attacks, Islamic Jihad reiterated its opposition to any renewal of the truce that ends this week.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has also spoken out against extending the Egyptian-mediated six-month ceasefire that went into effect on June 19, but it indicated it was yet to make a final decision."

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[Scurrilous]

1. Hamas declares end to Gaza cease-fire with Israel

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"The militant Islamist organization Hamas announced Thursday evening that the cease-fire with Israel in Gaza is over, 24 hours before the six-month truce was due to expire.

"The calm, which was reached with Egyptian sponsorship on June 19 and expires on December 19, is finished because the enemy did not abide by its obligations," said Hamas official Ayman Taha, who respresented the group in talks with other Palestinian factions. "The calm is over."

Hamas has ruled Gaza since June 2007, when it seized control of the territory after days of bloody street battles with the rival Fatah movement.

The past six months have seen a dramatic drop in the number of rockets and mortars fired at southern Israel from Gaza, but close to 50 rockets have been fired over the past three days, giving weight to Hamas declarations this week that the calm period is over.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired seven Qassam rockets Thursday, after the Israel Air Force struck targets in the Strip in response to the days of intense rocket fire.

Hamas leader in Gaza Mahmoud Zahar warned this week that the group would not agree to a continuation of the truce unless Israel eased the restrictions on the coastal strip."

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[Vegasaurus]

2. "Any end to the ceasefire would carry huge popular support"

The insanity of it all.

"We want to be martyrs and we deserve it". What a waste of lives.

'They are members of the small Palestinian faction, the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC).
Their leader, who calls himself Abu Attaya, tells me his men are itching for a fight.
"Us lions, we are used to fighting and dying as martyrs," he said, his men arranged around him in the classic paramilitary clump of strength.
"It will be a surprise for the enemy. We want to be martyrs and we deserve it."
Blockade tightened
You might expect a warning such as this from a large man in a balaclava. But the tough talk is spoken further up the ladder of power in Gaza.
The Islamist Hamas movement has been in control of the territory for 18 months.
Fawzi Barhoum, the Hamas spokesman, insists that any end to the ceasefire would carry huge popular support.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7790255.stm

[ProgressiveMuslim]

3. Israel broke the truce with the incursion during US elections. Was the world too

preoccupied to notice?