MIDDLES EAST: Israel says it will resume attacks against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip but insists it remains committed to a month-old ceasefire/Hamas calls on both sides to abide by ceasefire

Israel said on Wednesday, (December 27) it would resume attacks against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip but insisted it remained committed to a month-old ceasefire. In a statement that appeared to rule out a major military offensive in the territory, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said: "A directive has been given to the defence establishment to take pinpoint action against rocket-launching squads." Two Israelis, both aged 14, were seriously wounded by a Qassam rocket on Tuesday (December 26). Olmert has come under growing public criticism for failing to retaliate for more than 60 such attacks from the Gaza Strip since the Nov. 26 truce. Meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Tzipi Livni, his Israeli counterpart, backed Olmert's decision. "Today's decision reflects Israel's policy to continue to support the cease-fire to prevent deterioration and our responsibility as decision-makers for Israeli citizens in that we must prevent operations, immediately, when we see that we are able and to carry out the necessary operations," Livni said. Aboul Gheit condemned the rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. "Regarding the rocket attacks, we have expressed our refusal and condemnation towards those acts," Aboul Gheit said. But under international pressure to keep the ceasefire alive, and ahead of a Jan. 4 meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Olmert had not been expected by Israeli political commentators to order widescale military action that might weaken Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert and Abbas held long-awaited talks last Saturday, a meeting that ended with an Israeli promise to release $100 million in withheld tax revenues to the moderate leader, bypassing the Hamas-led government. Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government, also voiced support for the truce. "We still believe that this agreement is alive and both sides should respect it," he said. Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group, claimed its forces had fired the rocket that wounded the two teenagers on Tuesday, calling the strike a retaliation for Israel's continued military raids on its hideouts in the occupied West Bank. The truce has halted Israeli-Palestinian fighting in and near the Gaza Strip, but Israel has continued to pursue suspected militants in the West Bank. Israel has killed 15 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, all but one in the West Bank. About half were gunmen.

ITN Source | December 27, 2006

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