Palestinians Fire Retaliatory Rockets

Source: Alalam.ir, 24-06-2006

AL-QUDS--Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip is reprisal for an earlier ‘Israeli' attack slammed into south of the ‘Israeli'-occupied territories Tuesday, officials said.

The rockets were in response to the ‘Israeli' violation of ceasefire as an Egyptian-brokered truce between the occupying regime and the resistance Hamas movement entered its sixth day.

‘Israeli' police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one of the rockets struck the courtyard of a house in the border town of Sderot, causing some damage, and another struck a field outside the town.

The retaliatory rockets were the first to be fired from the Palestinian territory since the truce went into effect on June 19.

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad confirmed to AFP its fighters had carried out the attack.

"The rockets are a response to the crimes of the (Israeli) occupation in the West Bank," he said.

The attack, which caused no casualties, came hours after ‘Israeli' troops killed a senior Islamic Jihad fighter and another young man in the northern town of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Hamas blamed ‘Israel' for Tuesday's escalation in violence, saying it had "provoked" Palestinian
armed factions with the killing of the two men in Nablus.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said: "It is clear that it was the ‘Israeli' occupation that provoked the feelings of the Palestinian people and the resistance groups by committing these sorts of vile crimes in Nablus."

"We in Hamas affirm that we are adhering to the truce and working for its success and continuation and we will work with all the Palestinian factions to guarantee this."

Meanwhile, the ‘Israeli' regime's prime minister Ehud Olmert returned from Egypt where he held talks with President Hosni Mubarak on the truce and a parallel track of indirect talks with Hamas.

The talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh were aimed at securing a prisoner swap for captured ‘Israeli' soldier Gilad Shalit.

Egypt played a key role as mediator in brokering the ceasefire as ‘Israel' rejects direct contact with Hamas.

The truce, which called on ‘Israel' to cease all military operations in Gaza, also called for the easing of a year-long blockade of the coastal strip.

Egypt told ‘Israel' that it will keep its Rafah crossing with Gaza closed until the fate of Shalit is resolved, an official with the Zionist entity said.