Israel, Hamas truce in effect

GAZA CITY

A trail of smoke is seen as a rocket is launched from the Palestinian Gaza Strip toward southern Israel. A Palestinian boy (inset) views the body of a Palestinian militant throughthe window of Bait Hanon hospital in northern Gaza. AFP Photo

The skies over Gaza were quiet yesterday as an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas took hold after a spurt of violence left four Palestinians dead and two workers wounded in Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse there had been “no rocket fire at Israel nor any Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 24 night.” In Gaza, Palestinians officials also confirmed a quiet night without any air strikes, although a militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades claimed to have fired three rockets over the border.

Military and police sources said they were not aware of the incident, but the army later said one rocket had hit southern Israel. Israeli schools near the border were operating as normal, public radio said, after being closed for the day due to heavy rocket fire which began on Oct. 23 night and sparked a brief but deadly confrontation between militants and the Israeli army.

Late on Oct. 24, Israeli and Palestinian officials said an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire would go into effect at midnight. The agreement was aimed at ending 24 hours of bloodshed, which saw Israeli air strikes kill four militants and armed groups firing more than 70 rockets and mortars across the border, seriously wounding two Thai workers.

Among those firing on Israel was the armed wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which said three of the dead were its own militants. The latest surge in violence began on Oct. 23 evening, shortly after a top-level state visit to Gaza by the Qatari emir to inaugurate a multi-million dollar project to rebuild the Palestinian enclave. During the evening, militants fired six rockets at Israel and in response Israeli aircraft killed two Hamas militants in raids on northern Gaza, prompting a further wave of rocket fire.

Hamas officials said the emir urged Hamas to do everything possible to avoid violence with Israel. Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, suggested the visit had the opposite effect.

“I think what we see [with] the visit of the emir of Qatar in Gaza [is] clear support for terror and terrorist activity,” he said at a news conference with the visiting EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.

In his meeting with Ashton, Israeli President Shimon Peres charged that Qatari money was funding Hamas attacks. “No one in the world could agree to the current situation” of repeated rocket salvos, Peres said.

But Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Israel of trying to raise tensions, saying Israel was upset about the “political and economic gains” reaped from the emir’s visit, and wanted to “disrupt the atmosphere ahead of the holiday.”

“Hamas will receive its punishment for what has happened here,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also warned that any continuation of rocket fire would prompt a “much more extensive” Israeli response.