Israel kills 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 said air strikes in the West Bank
and Gaza that killed five gunmen would “open the doors of hell”
on Israel. Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef said the
killings were unjustified and would create more tension.

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 shot dead his comrade after he escaped and fired at
troops from a hideout. A second raid killed four militants in a
car in Gaza, which Hamas officials said carried makeshift
rockets.

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.

Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, said it was
reconsidering its commitment to the ceasefire. Yousef told
reporters in Gaza that the government would try to salvage the
truce and that no faction had the right to end it on its own.

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, Israel massed several army
vehicles 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.

“Our position will remain clear and constant: There will be
no retreat from imposing law and order,” Yousef said.

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