Israel pounded the northern Gaza Strip with artillery fire yesterday, killing a Palestinian police officer and wounding nine people as Israel escalated its retaliation for militant rocket attacks and put pressure on the new Hamas government that refuses to stop the attacks.
The shelling, which also set a plastics factory ablaze, was part of an Israeli offensive to stop the waves of rockets launched from Gaza into southern Israel. No Israelis were wounded in the rocket fire over the weekend.
In all, 15 Palestinians, including 13 militants and the child of one of the radicals, have died in Israeli air and artillery strikes since Friday.
Israel's stepped-up military strikes came after the Islamic Hamas government, which rejects Israel's right to exist, took power less than two weeks ago. Over the weekend, it began for the first time firing artillery at rocket-launching sites in populated areas.
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military has been given a free hand to act against militants.
"Security forces will act decisively against anyone who fires Qassam [rockets], or anyone who will deal or deals in terror," Olmert said before the weekly Cabinet meeting. "There are no restrictions on security forces in the event they identify danger."
Hamas' military wing condemned the "dangerous escalation" and vowed revenge.
"We warn the government of this monstrous entity against committing more crimes, because this will provoke more destruction and escalated military attacks against them and their people," it said in a statement posted on Hamas' Web site.
The police officer killed yesterday, Yasser Abu Jarad, 28, was trying to evacuate colleagues from a makeshift military post when a shell hit his car and killed him, Palestinian security officials said. The army said it had warned Palestinian security officers posted near launching sites that they could be in danger from Israeli retaliation.
Israel launched 900 artillery shells at northern Gaza since Thursday, the army said. During that time, the militants fired 10 rockets at Israel.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, farmers evacuated their cows because of nearby shelling. Shells hit several farms and two cows were seen bleeding. Students also evacuated a school near the border with Israel and an ambulance waited in the street in case of an emergency.
"If the Israelis, thought this policy would work with the Palestinians, they are mistaken, because violence and escalation will bring more violence and will not lead to calm," said Osama Inesu, a 39-year-old police officer.
While Israel has been pressuring Hamas with military strikes, the US and EU cut off of hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed aid to the Palestinian Authority. The US and EU classify Hamas as a terror group.
Israel suspended the monthly transfer of some 45 million euros (US$55 million) in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority shortly after Hamas won Jan. 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections. It also banned Hamas leaders from traveling between the West Bank and Gaza.
Yesterday, Israel's Cabinet was to discuss a more detailed policy toward Hamas.
In an interview published in the Washington Post on Saturday, Olmert said he would not hold peace talks with the Palestinians' moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, because Abbas has lost authority since Hamas' rise to power.
It was Olmert's first clear statement that he would not negotiate with Abbas, who favors talks, unless Hamas recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts existing peace accords. If Hamas refuses to change, Olmert has said he would unilaterally pull out of large parts of the West Bank while annexing large Jewish settlement blocs in the territory.
Hamas has said repeatedly it would not revise its positions, though some group leaders have hinted at a readiness to moderate.
Abbas, meanwhile, told the British newspaper the Guardian that Hamas has begun to realize after just a few days in power that it cannot govern without the world's recognition.
"You may notice some confusion in their [Hamas'] political positions," Abbas told the newspaper. "If Hamas does not change, nobody will deal with them. ... They came to understand it."
Israeli police and rescue services, meanwhile, went on alert yesterday to prevent Palestinian attacks ahead of the Passover festival.
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