Al-Quds Brigades, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, has ordered an end to its rocket attacks against Israel, the radical Palestinian movement announced yesterday.

"The leadership of the al-Quds Brigades issued orders three days ago to all groups to stop firing rockets in order to preserve the national Palestinian project at this critical and historic juncture," the movement said in a statement.

The statement said the group made the decision in order to "give a chance" for Israel's planned Gaza withdrawal "to place in a peaceful manner."

Jihad and other Palestinian factions reached an agreement with the Palestinian National Authority on calmness with Israel earlier this year, but it has since been behind a number of deadly attacks, including a suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Netanya last month.

Israel has threatened to launch a vast offensive in Gaza if Palestinian militants continue to carry out rocket attacks during the Gaza pullout due to begin in mid August.

The declaration by Islamic Jihad could ease the withdrawal, set to begin in two weeks.

Israel is leaving all 21 settlements in Gaza and four small enclaves in the West Bank. Israel has said it would not pull out under fire and has pledged a harsh response if troops or settlers are attacked.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack on Tuesday night, which was aimed at a large gathering of Israelis in the nearby town of Sderot protesting the withdrawal plan. Instead, the rudimentary rockets, which frequently miss their targets, landed on a house in the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

The rockets killed a Palestinian boy and wounded nine other people, including five children. Four are children of a former Palestinian cabinet minister, Hisham Abdel Razek, a senior official in the ruling Fatah party.

Islamic Jihad issued a statement denying any involvement and calling the attack an "unfortunate incident." It said it had issued orders three days ago to stop firing rockets "to give the chance for a quiet 'Zionist' departure from our beloved Gaza."

Israel's planned withdrawal from four West Bank settlements will begin on September 4, an Israeli military official said yesterday.

Fuad Halhal, an official in the military's civil administration, said the pullout would take place over six days, and cautioned the army is concerned about violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians. Halhal spoke during a meeting with officials from the United Nations and international relief groups.

Thousands of Israeli ultra-rightists rallying against the impending Gaza withdrawal planned to march over the border to Jewish settlements in the occupied land yesterday, a procession police vowed to block.

Tents dotted a wood in the southwest town of Ofakim where extreme-right religious activists mainly families with young children and groups of teenagers camped out after a peaceful demonstration near Gaza's frontier on Tuesday.

(China Daily August 4, 2005)