(IsraelNN.com) Terrorists in Hamas-run Gaza violated the six-day-old ceasefire by firing a mortar shell and at least two Kassam rockets into Israel on Monday night and Tuesday. Several people were lightly hurt, including one with shrapnel injuries.  A number of children were treated for shock.

One rocket hit the yard of an empty house in Sderot, and another one landed just outside the city.  On Monday night, a mortar shell was fired into Israel, landing outside the Karni Crossing near Nachal Oz; no damage was reported.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded sharply to the rocket attacks: "This is a blatant violation of the agreement to have a period of calm. Israel will consider its next steps."

Likud MK Yisrael Katz said, "The agreement was over even before it started.  The government, which has both abandoned Gilad Shalit and also not achieved a calm, must respond with unusual gravity, or else the lives of the residents of the south will be totally wanton."

A HNN newsite report stated that though IDF soldiers spotted a rocket-launching terrorist cell in northern Gaza immediately following the Kassam attack, they did not fire at the terrorists, in adherence with the temporary ceasefire.

Hamas announced after the attack that it was still committed to the ceasefire.  Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza apparently were the ones to fire the Kassams, following the successful killing of two Islamic Jihad terrorists by IDF counter-terror units in Shechem (Nablus) on Monday.