Israel to renew pinpoint attacks against Gaza rocket launchers, but maintain truce

Wednesday, December 27th 2006, 6:11 am

By: News On 6

JERUSALEM (AP) _ Israel decided on Wednesday to resume pinpoint attacks against Palestinian rocket-launching cells in Gaza, seriously jeopardizing what is already a shaky, month-old truce with Gaza militants.

The decision came hours after a rocket seriously wounded two Israeli teenage boys in Sderot, a town in southern Israel close to the Gaza border. Shortly after, a rocket was fired from Gaza, the military reported, without providing further details.

Israel Radio said the projectile landed in an open field in the Sderot area, causing no injuries or damage. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility.

Although Israel declared it remained committed to the truce, the decision to strike against rocket launchers clearly raises the level of violence.

It could also undermine Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent efforts to bolster the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who is in a standoff with Hamas. The Islamic militant group controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet.

``The defense establishment has been instructed to take pinpoint action against the rocket-launching cells,'' Olmert's office said after a morning meeting of senior officials. ``At the same time, Israel will continue to abide by the cease-fire.''

Palestinian militants violated the truce within an hour after it took effect on Nov. 26, and by the military's count, have launched more than 60 rockets at southern Israel since then.

Israel has so far refrained from responding, but Olmert had warned in recent days that his patience was wearing thin.

Olmert has come under intense pressure from residents of Sderot, political opponents and members of his own Cabinet to take action against the rockets. Most of the crude weapons have been launched by Islamic Jihad, a radical group backed by Iran that does not participate in Palestinian politics.

At least seven rockets exploded in Israel on Tuesday. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for all of them.

The truce ended five months of deadly fighting that followed an attack by Hamas-linked gunmen on an Israeli army post just outside Gaza. Two soldiers were killed and another was captured in that raid, and Israel retaliated by sending ground troops, artillery and aircraft to strike at militants and their rocket squads.

But the incursions failed to stop the rocket fire or win the release of the soldier. When Abbas, a moderate who favors peace talks, persuaded militant factions to agree to a truce, Olmert agreed to pull Israeli forces out of Gaza.

Israel's policy of renewed retaliation could undo progress toward bolstering Abbas against his Hamas rivals. Olmert and Abbas met on Saturday for their first working meeting, and Olmert pledged to ease restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza as a gesture to the Palestinian president.

Renewed violence could delay or shelve those plans.

In other efforts to push forward with peace efforts, Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are to meet Jan. 4 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Israeli officials said. Egypt has played a major role in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians, and has been trying to negotiate the release of the captured Israeli soldier.

The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, was meeting Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Wednesday to help prepare for next week's summit.

And in an attempt to end the deadly tensions between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah, Jordan has invited Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to Amman.

Talks between the rivals over forming a national unity government broke down last month, and Abbas has threatened to call early elections to end the impasse. The tensions erupted into factional fighting that has killed 17 people this month.

Haniyeh and Abbas have both accepted the invitation to Jordan. The date of the meeting has not been publicized.