Israelis kill 6 Hamas gunmen as truce crumbles

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel killed six Hamas gunmen on Friday
in response to a deadly Palestinian rocket barrage and resumed
its assassination policy against militants as a five-month-old
truce appeared to be unraveling.

The Islamic group Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction,
said back-to-back missile strikes in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip that killed five of the gunmen would “open the doors of
hell” on Israel.

It also said it was reconsidering its commitment to the
ceasefire.

Palestinian gunmen have in the past few days bombarded
Israelis in and around Gaza with rockets and mortar bombs in
what they said were responses to Israeli killings of militants.

An Israeli air strike killed a Hamas gunman in the West
Bank and another killed four militants in a car in Gaza City,
which Hamas officials said carried makeshift rockets. A third
strike wounded a gunman from the group in southern Gaza.

Hours later, Israeli troops shot dead a Hamas gunman during
a clash in the West Bank, a Palestinian security source said.

The Israel army said it targeted “wanted terrorists” in the
West Bank and the Hamas men hit in Gaza intended to carry out
rocket attacks.

The flare-up, one of the worst since Israel and the
Palestinian Authority declared an end to hostilities in
February, raised the prospect of disruption to Israel’s planned
pullout of settlers from occupied Gaza next month.

Hours after the strikes, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met
security officials to discuss Israel’s plan of action regarding
recent rocket barrages. The Palestinian Authority said air
raids would serve only to escalate the violence.

Israeli television later showed military vehicles massing
around Gaza. News reports quoted security sources as saying
Israel might raid militant strongholds in the area in the
coming days to try to stop rocket launchers. The army had no
comment.

A POSSIBLE SPRINGBOARD

The surge in bloodshed could also complicate Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw all Jewish settlers
from Gaza starting in mid-August, a move international
mediators see as a possible springboard to new peace talks.

Sharon said Israel would strike against militants,
including those from Islamic Jihad, the group behind a suicide
bombing that killed five Israelis on Tuesday. Israeli defense
officials have vowed not to allow gunmen to disrupt the
withdrawal.

“The pullout cannot commence under fire,” Sharon told
Israel’s Channel 2 television. “We will take all steps against
Islamic Jihad without any limitations. The response to terror
acts will be strong and harsh.”

He added: “There is no chance to reach a peace agreement as
long as terror occurs.”

Israel had reaffirmed its intention to resume what it calls
“targeted killings” of top militants following the suicide
bombing. It had suspended the internationally condemned policy
under the truce.

The Israeli strikes followed the killing of a young Israeli
woman in a rocket attack on Thursday that sparked the fiercest
internal fighting in years between militants and Palestinian
police, who confronted them to try to stop further salvoes.

Two bystanders were killed and 26 people wounded in the
gunbattles, which raised Palestinian fears of civil war, and
the Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency in
Gaza.

President Mahmoud Abbas, struggling to salvage the truce
and keep control in the face of a growing Hamas challenge,
ordered police to act amid Israeli threats of harsh reprisals.

(additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and
Corinne Heller in Jerusalem)