Israel shells Gaza for first time since pullout

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel shelled Gaza on Tuesday for the
first time since its withdrawal from the territory in response
to a new rocket attack by militants, and vowed no respite in an
offensive to halt cross-border salvoes.

An Israeli army statement said troops had fired “a number
of artillery shells” at a northern Gaza area used by militants
to launch rockets at Israel, and that it would continue to use
“any and all means at its disposal” to halt attacks by
militants.

Hours later Israel launched a new air strike on Gaza City,
targeting an office of the ruling Fatah faction in the Sejaieh
quarter, an Israeli military source and witnesses said.

There were no reports of casualties in either incident.

The shelling marked a new escalation in fighting between
Israel and the Palestinians, and dealt a new blow to world
hopes that Israel’s Gaza pullout on September 12 would lead to
renewed Middle East peace talks.

It was the first time Israel had shelled Gaza in years,
Israeli media said. Israel’s troops had used air power and
ground incursions to fight militants during the 38 years when
Israel’s military ruled the coastal zone.

The shelling came an hour after a rocket from Gaza crashed
into a southern Israeli town causing panic but no casualties.
The rocket was fired after a fresh Israeli air strike in Gaza
after darkness fell on Tuesday.

The violence underlined the factional chaos in Gaza
confronting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he seeks to
make Gaza a peaceful proving ground for a state Palestinians
aspire to build in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Earlier, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had threatened that
militants “will be hit again and again until they understand
there are new rules to the game.”

Mofaz, addressing troops operating artillery guns, did not
rule out an incursion into Gaza and said Israel could
assassinate leaders of militant group Hamas just as it killed
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004.

“Until it is quiet, the terrorist organizations won’t know
any quiet,” Mofaz said.

“If the Hamas organization, Mahmoud al-Zahar, or Ismail
Haniyah and the others continue with rocket fire, we will send
them to the same place as Rantissi and Yassin. Let there be no
doubt about it.”

LEADERSHIP BATTLE NOT OVER

Mofaz’s warning came as Hamas, the main militant group,
infuriated Israelis by releasing a statement and videotape of a
blindfolded Israeli man claiming it had killed him in the West
Bank after planning to ransom him to release jailed comrades.

It also attested to pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
from his restive right-wing Likud party to prove that the
pullout he billed as “disengagement” from conflict with
Palestinians would improve, not undermine, Israel’s security.

Likud’s executive on Monday narrowly voted down a motion by
Sharon’s rightist rival Benjamin Netanyahu to bring forward a
party leadership election in a bid to unseat the prime minister
in protest over the evacuation of Gaza.

Despite the vote, Sharon faces a risk of defeat to
Netanyahu in a Likud leadership contest set for April if there
is no lasting halt to Palestinian violence. The next general
election must be held by November 2006.

Netanyahu had argued the withdrawal would turn Gaza into a
militant base, but most Israelis backed Sharon’s uprooting of
all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said after the
Likud vote: “We invite Mr. Sharon to resume final-status talks
so we can reach the end game.”

Palestinians are keen to launch negotiations based on a
U.S.-devised “road map” peace plan. Israel rejects such talks
before Palestinians disarm militants.

After a weekend volley of dozens of rockets into Israel,
Mohammed al-Hindi, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, said
militants of all Gaza factions had renewed a “commitment to
calm” while reserving the right to respond if Israel continued
attacks.

Al-Hindi spoke as a senior Palestinian official said Egypt,
a long-time mediator of the conflict, spearheaded a diplomatic
campaign to persuade both Israel and the militants to stick to
a eight-month cease-fire.

(Writing by Mark Heinrich and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in
Jerusalem, additional reporting by Corinne Heller and Wafa Amr
in Ramallah)