Rocket attack breaks lull in Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Olmert had just visited Ashkelon

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday comforted a boy injured recently by a rocket attack in the border town of Sderot. (Avi Ohayon/Associated Press)

JERUSALEM - Gaza militants fired a rocket at the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon yesterday, fracturing a tenuous lull in Palestinian-Israeli tensions that had escalated sharply in late February and early March.

The rocket landed in an open area south of the city and caused no casualties, an Israeli police spokesman said. It was the first to be fired at Ashkelon in a week.

Hours earlier, the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, had visited the city, telling residents there that another recent rocket assault was not "a one-time experience" and that there is no way of preventing a recurrence.

Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people about 10 miles north of the Gaza Strip, was struck by at least 20 foreign-made, Katyusha-type rockets a few weeks ago during a surge in hostilities. Dozens of locally produced, shorter-range Qassam rockets were also fired at the Israeli border town of Sderot, killing an Israeli civilian.

Israeli officials viewed the launching of rockets against Ashkelon as an attempt by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, to escalate the conflict with Israel.

A subsequent Israeli air and ground campaign in Gaza left more than 120 Palestinians, including many civilians, and two Israeli soldiers dead.

A small militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for yesterday's rocket attack, but a spokesman for Olmert said Israel holds Hamas responsible.

Egyptian officials have been trying to broker a lull in the violence to create the conditions for a broader agreement between Israel and Hamas, which refuse to deal directly with each other. Palestinian and Egyptian officials have outlined the deal as including an extended period of calm; lifting the Israeli embargo on Gaza; and a possible prisoner exchange. Olmert on Monday denied holding negotiations for a cease-fire, but said that if the militants stopped launching rockets and smuggling weapons into Gaza, Israel would have no reason to fire.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of the Fatah faction, in comments during a meeting with Jordanian newspaper editors, criticized the use of rockets by the rival Hamas, contending that they cause more harm to the Palestinians than to the Israelis. In remarks published in the Jordanian papers yesterday, he said: "What resistance are we talking about? Are rockets and suicide attacks considered as resistance?"

In late February, Abbas recalled his own role in the early Palestinian resistance and raised questions about his future commitment to peaceful negotiations. "At this time, I object to the armed struggle, since we are unable to conduct it; however, in future stages, things may change," he was quoted as saying in the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour.

In Gaza City yesterday, a group of young Hamas supporters persuaded dozens of Palestinian livestock owners to bring their animals to demonstrate outside local UN offices. They were seeking to draw attention to the months-long blockade, with Israel only allowing in essential goods, mostly supplied by relief organizations.