Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Friday, March 14, 2008 3:11:10 PM
The violence flared within hours of an Israeli operation on Wednesday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem where undercover special forces killed four Palestinian gunmen, including two senior commanders.
Israeli warplanes struck targets in the northern Gaza Strip after militants from the Hamas-run territory fired a dozen rockets into the Jewish state.
There were no casualties, but the renewed tit-for-tat attacks put at risk international efforts to broker a more permanent deal to end the violence and the isolation around the impoverished territory.
They also come a day before the Israelis and Palestinians are to meet with a US general to resume peace talks that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas suspended amid a week of strikes in Gaza that left more than 130 people dead.
In a rare harshly-worded statement, the Palestinian presidency accused Israel of "barbaric crimes."
"These barbaric crimes reveal the truce face of Israel, which speaks loudly about peace and security all the while committing murders and executions against our people," it said.
Israel said it held Hamas, which violently seized control of Gaza in June, responsible for the rocket fire, even though the radical Islamic Jihad group claimed the salvoes.
"Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and they are accountable for every active aggression against Israel," said government spokesman Mark Regev.
"If, like today, another group takes responsibility, we understand that such a group could not have fired a rocket without the collaboration and support of Hamas," he said. "We will not allow Hamas to sub-contract out terrorism."
The love-affair is over I'm afraid. One thing you can count on from terrorists is that they will never keep their word and always stab you in the back while attempting to torture and murder your people. Abbas says there's a Palestinian Holocaust; maybe they should give him one, concentration camps and all.