JERUSALEM, 25 October 2005 — Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired rockets on Israel yesterday in revenge for the killing of a top commander the previous day, sparking retaliatory Israeli shellfire on the territory. Two makeshift rockets exploded just inside Israeli territory without causing any casualties, military sources said.
Israeli troops shot dead an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank earlier yesterday, the most senior Palestinian militant killed since the start of an eight-month-old cease-fire.
Palestinian groups stopped such attacks last month after a flare-up in violence in which Israel killed several gunmen after similar rocket salvoes. But Islamic Jihad vowed to avenge Israel’s killing of Loai Assadi, 26, a top West Bank leader of Islamic Jihad who was accused of masterminding suicide bombings that killed 10 Israelis since the truce was declared in February.
The renewed violence threatened to unravel the frayed cease-fire and undermine hopes that Israel’s Gaza pullout last month, after 38 years of occupation, could revive peacemaking.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said in a statement the West Bank killing marked an escalation in violence that threatened to undermine Abbas’ efforts to bring calm and security.
Meanwhile, an international envoy charged that Israel is acting as if it never withdrew from the Gaza Strip, stalling agreements with the Palestinians on issues such as access to the territory and links with the West Bank. Former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn said in a letter to members of the Middle East quartet — the United Nations, European Union, Russia and United States - that time was running short to resolve disagreements and the security situation was liable to frighten off investors and donors.
“The government of Israel, with its important security concerns, is loath to relinquish control, almost acting as though there has been no withdrawal, delaying making difficult decisions and preferring to take difficult matters back into slow-moving subcommittees,” he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
