3 Rockets From Gaza into Israeli Town Breach Cease-Fire; Political Crisis Looms

By Isabel Kershner

Three rockets fired from Gaza on Tuesday struck the Israeli border town of Sderot and its environs, causing no injuries but constituting the first serious breach of a five-day-old truce mediated by Egypt between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic organization that controls Gaza.

The crack in the calm came on the eve of a looming political crisis in Israel: Barring last-minute maneuvers and backroom deals, a preliminary reading of a bill for the dissolution of the Israeli Parliament scheduled for Wednesday was expected to gain a majority of votes in the legislature, threatening a break-up of the country’s governing coalition.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the rocket fire from Gaza was “a grave violation of the calm” that came into effect last Thursday, but he did not comment on whether Israel would react.

Islamic Jihad, a small extremist group, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was an answer to an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Nablus at dawn Tuesday in which a senior Islamic Jihad operative and another Palestinian man were killed.

Palestinian officials identified the two men killed as Tareq Abu Ghali, 24, and Iyad Khanfar, 21, a university student.

An Israeli Army spokesman said that Abu Ghali had been involved in terrorism and that he was “killed in an exchange of fire.”

The man killed with him was armed, the spokesman said.

Under pressure from Hamas, Islamic Jihad had agreed to abide by the temporary truce, which was meant to apply only to Gaza, but had balked at the idea of not responding to Israeli military actions in the West Bank.

Previous cease-fire understandings in Gaza have fallen apart over the inability of Palestinian leaders to contain smaller groups. Hamas has been in full control of Gaza for the past year and Israel has said it will hold Hamas responsible for fully enforcing the calm.

A single mortar shell was also fired from Gaza late Monday night and landed on the Israeli side of the border fence.

The rocket attack occurred hours after Olmert met President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik to discuss next steps in the tenuous truce and the renewal of efforts to resolve the case of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal who has been held captive by Hamas in Gaza for two years.

At the same time, there has been an apparent hitch in what was supposed to be an imminent prisoner exchange between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israel seemed to be preparing to declare that two of its soldiers held by the group since July 2006 are presumed to be dead – a conclusion that could theoretically reduce the price that Israel is willing to pay for their return.

The two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were badly wounded during their capture in an ambush across the Israeli border by Hezbollah, which set off a month-long war.

Hezbollah has offered no proof that they are still alive

Olmert said Tuesday that the indirect negotiations with Hezbollah were continuing but would take more time.

The emotional issue of the captured and missing soldiers has stirred public outrage in Israel, along with a sense of government bungling and indecision.

Against the backdrop of a high-profile corruption investigation of Olmert, the Labor Party, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said it intended to back the preliminary vote Wednesday for the dissolution of Parliament. Initiated by the opposition, the bill is a first step toward early elections.

Labor is a crucial junior partner to Olmert’s Kadima Party in the governing coalition, but Barak called in late May for Olmert to step down from his post pending the outcome of the police investigation.

In a counterstrike, however, Olmert has said he will not tolerate ministers in his government working toward its demise. An aide to the prime minister said Tuesday that Olmert was “very determined” to fire any ministers “who vote to shorten the life of the government.”

Without Labor, Olmert would be left in charge of a minority government whose days would almost certainly be numbered.

Another coalition partner, the ultra-Orthodox Shas, also threatened to back the dissolution bill unless Olmert agreed to a significant raise in child allowances, a demand the prime minister refused to meet by Tuesday.

The political turmoil has compounded public cynicism about the government’s decisions and motivations.

Alex Fishman, the military affairs correspondent of the mass- circulation daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot, described the politicians’ conduct on the prospective deal with Hezbollah as “shameless.”

“The elections have driven these people mad,” he wrote in the newspaper Tuesday. “Nothing in this story about the captives and the MIAs is true anymore,” he said, referring to soldiers missing in action.

“Everything is subordinate to electoral considerations and political gambits: Which minister will come across as the most patriotic because he isn’t prepared to pay the price that was agreed to with the other side.”

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

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