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Hamas, Israel struggle to contain hostilities

Israeli soldiers escort blindfolded Palestinian women to the Kissufim Israeli army base after they were detained during a military operation in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers on Wednesday sought to contain the fallout from the worst fighting since a truce went into effect five months ago, but a flare-up later in the day threatened to unravel it anew.

Gaza militants pounded southern Israel with dozens of rockets to avenge a deadly Israeli raid. Neither side seems to have much to gain from a renewal of hostilities, and officials on both sides said they wanted to restore calm.

Late on Wednesday, however, an Israeli air strike killed one Palestinian militant in northern Gaza. The army said it was targeting a rocket launcher, which the Islamic Jihad militant group identified as its own.

Islamic Jihad militants had earlier fired two rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot, a favorite target. One of its leaders, Khader Habib, declared the truce over.

Hamas, which agreed to the Egyptian-mediated truce, said Israel was breaching it.

“The occupier has a clear plan to destroy the truce and drown us in blood,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Before the June truce, near daily rocket barrages had severely disrupted life in southern border towns and Israel has not found a military solution to stop them. Retaliatory Israeli air strikes have killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza.

“We have no intention of violating the quiet,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on a tour of southern Israeli areas bordering Gaza. “But in any place where we need to thwart an action against Israeli soldiers and civilians, we will act.”

Hamas, on the other hand, needs the calm to strengthen its hold on Gaza, which it seized control of in June last year, and restore its military capabilities ahead of a potential future battle with Israel.

Barhoum said the group had fired deep into Israel on Wednesday to demonstrate the price of continued Israeli aggression. At the same time, he said Hamas had contacted Egyptian mediators to find ways of keeping the truce intact.

Clashes began late on Tuesday after the Israeli army burst into Gaza to destroy what it said was a tunnel being dug near the border to abduct Israeli troops. During the incursion, Hamas gunmen battled Israeli forces. One Hamas fighter was killed, prompting a wave of mortar fire at nearby Israeli targets.

An Israeli air strike then killed five Hamas militants preparing to fire mortar shells. Hamas responded with the barrage of rockets, including one that reached the city of Ashkelon, about 16km north of Gaza.

Israeli police said the rocket landed in an empty area. There were no reports of injuries or property damage. The army said four soldiers were wounded, two moderately, in the border fighting.

Thousands of Palestinian mourners rushed slain militants through the streets of the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, waving green Hamas flags and vowing revenge.

Gaza residents crowded into hospitals, as ambulances delivered the dead and injured. Grieving militants in military fatigues fired rounds of automatic weapon fire into the air to commemorate their fallen comrades.

Over Gaza City, the thudding sound of rockets being fired into Israel was audible. Unmanned Israeli aircraft, often used to target militants, buzzed in the sky overhead.
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