Palestinian armed groups in Gaza fired three Kassam rockets at Israel early Sunday, and another four later in the morning, despite reports that they had agreed to halt such attacks. Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip decided on Saturday to declare a unilateral cease-fire with Israel, Palestinian Authority officials said. The decision, which primarily calls for halting rocket attacks on Israel, was to go into effect on Saturday at midnight, the officials added. They said the decision to announce a unilateral cease-fire was taken following pressure from Egypt. According to the official, the armed wings of Hamas and Fatah agreed to abide by the cease-fire. Despite the announcement, some armed groups in the Gaza Strip denied that they had agreed to stop firing rockets at Israel and vowed to pursue their attacks. The announcement came on the eve of the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region and is seen as an attempt on the part of the Palestinians to win US backing for ending Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday rejected Rice's call for a "new Middle East" and accused Washington of seeking to destroy Hamas and Hizbullah. He also claimed that the US's plan was to turn the Middle East into a region dominated by Israel.
Haniyeh, who was speaking to reporters in Gaza City, urged the US to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people and to halt the Israeli military operations in Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "If the 'new Middle East' means striking at the resistance and turning Israel into the dominant power in the region, all the people in the Middle East will reject it," he said. "But if the new Middle East they want means ending the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as it capital, as well as the return of all the refugees and the release of all the Arab prisoners, we will certainly welcome it."