Two Qassam rockets fired from northern Gaza Monday afternoon
landed in open areas in the western Negev region, breaching for the
second time a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip since it went
into effect on Sunday, local newspaper Ha'aretz
reported.
This is the second violence of the day-old truce, and there are
so far no reports of injuries or damage. Hours after the ceasefire
went into effect at 6 AM Sunday, several rocket barrages hit
southern Israel.
According to the Ha'aretz report, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian National Authority (PNA)
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for
the rocket attacks.
Before the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday
made an appeal to the Palestinians, urging them to choose a path of
negotiations with Israel.
Speaking at an annual memorial service for Israel's first
premier David Ben-Gurion at Sde Boker in the Negev, Olmert said
Israel would be ready to evacuate occupied lands and settlements in
return for "real peace."
However, earlier in the day, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops
in West Bank shot dead two Palestinians, one of them is member of a
militant group with ties to Gaza's Popular Resistance Committees,
raising concerns that there could be a violent response from the
Strip.
Some militant factions have warned that they would respond with
attacks to all casualties caused by the IDF in the West Bank, and
that the truce would collapse unless Israel also halts military
operations in the whole of the territories including the West
Bank.
After Sunday's rocket attack, Olmert had said that Israel would
display "patience and restraint."
(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2006)
