Hamas's armed wing on Sunday said that armed groups in its Gaza Strip stronghold had finalised a deal to stop firing rockets into Israel, but said they would respond to Israeli raids. "The agreement between (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam (Brigades) and other factions to stop rocket (fire) is not a sign of weakness," the group said in a statement.
The agreement is "aimed at keeping together the internal front and the supreme national interest of the Palestinian people." It warned, however, that the groups would respond in the case of Israeli strikes on the territory.
"Al-Qassam Brigades will not stand idly by in case of a Zionist escalation and will defend ourselves with all our force." The statement was released a day after a rocket was fired into Israel from Gaza, landing without causing injuries or damage, and hours after the army responded with three air raids that wounded eight Palestinians.
It marked the latest violence along Gaza's border, which has been mostly quiet since a war that Israel launched on Hamas in Gaza on December 27 in response to rocket fire ended with mutual cease-fires on January 18. The ceasefires have largely held despite violations by both sides.
AIR STRIKES WOUND EIGHT:
Three Israeli air strikes on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight wounded eight Palestinians, one of them seriously, medics said on Sunday. Five people were wounded, including the one seriously, in a raid carried out on smuggling tunnels near the southern town of Rafah, they said. The other three people were wounded in strikes against metal workshops in the territory, one of them in the centre and the other in the north, they said.
An army spokesman told AFP said the raids came in response to a rocket fired on Saturday into southern Israel from the enclave, which landed without causing injuries or damage.
It marked the latest violence along Gaza's border, which has been mostly quiet since a war that Israel launched on Hamas in Gaza on December 27 in response to rocket fire ended with mutual cease-fires on January 18.
The cease-fires have largely held despite violations by both sides.
Since Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza off to all but basic goods following the Islamist movement Hamas's seizure of the territory in June 2007, a vast trade in goods through hundreds of tunnels has developed along the border.
More than 120 Palestinians have died in cave-ins or been killed by Israeli operations targeting the network since the Hamas take-over of Gaza, medics say.