JERUSALEM: Hostilities around the Gaza Strip seem to have wound down after two weeks of intensive Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket fire, as Hamas, which played a leading role in the recent round of violence, appears to be lowering its profile.
The violence, though reduced, has not stopped. An Israeli air attack killed a prominent field commander from Islamic Jihad on Friday night in his vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Israeli Army officials and Islamic Jihad. On Saturday morning, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Aksa Brigades claimed responsibility for firing a rocket from Gaza at the Israeli border town of Sderot, causing damage to houses but no injuries.
Israeli security officials described the aerial attack on the Islamic Jihad commander, Fadi Abu Mustafa, 22, as a joint operation between the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The officials, who could not be identified under army rules, said Abu Mustafa had been "involved in terrorist activity against Israel since 2003."
Nevertheless, since Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force has carried out one or two raids a day, compared with as many as 11 in one day during the week before, according to figures provided by an army spokeswoman.
The number of rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel also dropped in the past few days by about half, according to army figures. Eight rockets were launched on Friday and six on Thursday, compared with a rough average of 14 per day in the previous two weeks.
The escalation of violence started in mid-May after a week of factional violence in Gaza between gunmen of Hamas, the faction which dominates the Palestinian government, and its rival and coalition partner, Fatah, in which about 50 were killed.
Hamas announced that it was resuming rocket fire against Israel, breaking a six-month Gaza cease-fire to which it had largely adhered.
In response, the Israeli Army stepped up air attacks in Gaza, aiming mostly at Hamas military compounds and outposts, as well as weapons-storage facilities and rocket-launching cells.
More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli strikes, at least 31 of whom were militants, according to Palestinian medical officials. Two Israeli civilians were killed by the rocket fire.
Israel Radio reported that Hamas has not been firing rockets at Israel for the past few days, and though Hamas has not formally announced any cessation, a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, suggested Saturday that the movement had already achieved its goals.
"The firing of rockets is part of the strategy of resistance, and whatever we did has achieved many goals," said Barhoum, who would not explicitly confirm a halt in Hamas rocket fire. "We have achieved a balance of fear, we have made public Israel's violations against Palestinian citizens, and we have united the Palestinian factions into one front."
The deputy political chief of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told the Egyptian daily Al Ahram on Saturday that Hamas may agree to renew the calm with Israel for a limited period of one year. But he said that there would have to be a commitment from both sides, and that the cease-fire would have to apply simultaneously to the West Bank as well as Gaza.
Israel has rejected the idea of expanding the cease-fire to the West Bank until it is properly implemented in Gaza. Smaller Palestinian factions such as Islamic Jihad continued sporadic rocket fire from Gaza during the six-month cease-fire, often explaining their actions as a response to Israeli military raids in the West Bank. Neither Hamas nor Fatah, which dominates the official Palestinian Authority security forces, took any action against them.
Source : www.iht.com
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