GAZA CITY, 4 June 2007 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed yesterday to continue strikes in the Gaza Strip as a soldier was wounded by mortar shells fired by the armed wing of Hamas. One soldier was moderately wounded and three more suffered light injuries when the shells hit near the Erez border crossing with Israel, the Israeli Army said.
In Gaza City, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, senior partner in the Palestinian unity Cabinet, claimed responsibility for the attack which also struck a kibbutz without causing casualties there.
Prime Minister Olmert vowed that the army would continue targeting gunmen despite a reduction at the weekend in the number of projectiles fired by Palestinians. “In view of what appears to be a drop in Qassam fire, I would like to make it clear that we are not negotiating,” Olmert said at the weekly Cabinet meeting, referring to the homemade rockets.
“We are not committing ourselves to changing the patterns of our operations,” he said. “We will continue to take action against terrorist elements... in the Gaza region and the West Bank without letting up. These activities are yielding results and will continue as they contribute to protecting Israeli citizens.”
The violence around Gaza, which has also included deadly factional clashes between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions, has sparked international concern and threatened to torpedo efforts to revive stagnant Mideast peace talks.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum denied that two days of relative quiet at the weekend — with a decrease both in rocket fire and Israeli strikes on Friday and Saturday — represented a “change of strategy.”
“We will respond with all necessary force and we will increase the resistance in the face of (Israeli) violations,” he told AFP, adding that the movement was demanding a “general truce” to apply to both Gaza and the West Bank before it would stop its fire. Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza on May 16 after a six-month truce following a sharp increase in rocket fire that accompanied fierce fighting between Hamas and Fatah.
The Israeli strikes have killed 16 civilians and 37 fighters, mostly from Hamas, but have failed to halt the rocket attacks.
More than 285 projectiles have been fired into Israel since May 15, the army said, killing two civilians, wounding more than 20 people and sending hundreds fleeing from the southern town of Sderot that has borne the brunt of the fire. Israel and Gaza fighters largely abided by the truce that was implemented on Nov. 26 before the latest bout of violence shattered the truce two-and-a-half weeks ago.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is due to meet Olmert tomorrow, has called for a renewal of the truce but the prospects of a new cease-fire appear dim. Hamas has demanded that a new truce also apply to the West Bank, but Israel is unlikely to accede to the demand in the occupied territory where its troops regularly carry out operations they insist are necessary to foil Palestinian attacks.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet yesterday that the army would continue its Gaza operations. “We do not intend to let Hamas make a decision on a cease-fire,” his office quoted him as saying. “We must guarantee that the situation where Hamas solves its problems by firing on Israel does not occur again.”
— With input from agencies
