No Holiday for Rocket Attacks

Hamas and allied terrorists attacked <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel twice with Kassam rockets towards the end of Purim on Tuesday, causing damage to a fence at a kibbutz but no injuries. The second rocket exploded in an open area.

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The IDF immediately retaliated and hit the rocket-launching cell as they were fleeing in a vehicle in northern GazaCity. Arab sources said one terrorist suffered moderate wounds and that two others were lightly wounded. Hamas claimed the three were "policemen." 

Rocket attacks have returned as a daily occurrence since Israel halted Operation Cast Lead in mid-January. The Olmert government contended at the time that it had achieved its objective of stopping the rocket attacks that have partly paralyzed living conditions for tens of thousands of southern residents for the past eight and a half years.

Operation Cast Lead ended with an Israeli unilateral ceasefire that was conditioned on a cessation of rocket attacks. The following day, Hamas announced a ceasefire but has broken it on almost a daily basis, firing more than 100 rockets and mortar shells at Israel in the past six weeks.

Hamas and Israel continue to negotiate through Egyptian mediators, trying to come up with another truce, although several agreements over the past two years have broken down almost immediately.

The French news agency AFP said that Islamic Jihad spokesmen claimed they had been forced by Hamas to sign an agreement to cease rocket attacks. Hamas refused to comment on the report.