The armed wing of Hamas said it carried out its first attacks against Israel since a shaky November truce in the Gaza Strip, shooting a utility worker on Monday near the border and firing two mortar bombs at soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office called the shooting a "terror" attack and said it showed the new Palestinian unity government, dominated by Hamas, was failing to meet Western demands to halt violence and recognise Israel.
Palestinians hope the unity government that took office on Saturday between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction will stem fighting between the groups and ease a crippling economic embargo that has increased poverty.
The year-old diplomatic boycott splintered further on Monday when Norway's deputy foreign minister met with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza and Italy's foreign minister called Haniyeh in a show of support. While the United States said it would continue to boycott the new Palestinian government, it did not rule out unofficial talks with non-Hamas ministers.
But crippling economic sanctions remain in place and tensions are high, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
In its first public rift with Fatah since they established their power-sharing government, Hamas accused Abbas of illegally naming one of the Islamist group's long-time foes, Mohammad Dahlan, as national security adviser.
Hamas's Qassam Brigades said the shooting attack, which seriously wounded the Israeli worker near the Karni commercial crossing, and the mortar fire, came in response to Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, which is not covered by the four-month-old truce. No soldiers were injured by the mortar fire.
The Qassam Brigades said attacks against Israel would continue, and the group did not declare a formal end to the truce. A spokesman for the Hamas movement, Fawzi Barhoum, said: "Hamas did not and will not stop the resistance."
It was the first attack claimed by Hamas's armed wing since the November truce, which it had upheld. Other groups, such as Islamic Jihad, stayed out of the ceasefire and continued to launch makeshift rockets into Israel from Gaza.
An explosion on Monday ripped through an Islamic Jihad member's house near Gaza City, killing him and wounding at least nine people, hospital workers and residents said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion. Israel believes Hamas has been taking advantage of the break in fighting to build up its forces and smuggle in an arsenal of rockets that could penetrate deep into Israeli territory.
Comments
Comments are closed.