| BBC-style scare quotes are mine. |
The rocket strike early Sunday threatened the ceasefire agreement that came into effect at dawn and in which militants promised to halt rocket attacks in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the impoverished coastal territory. The attack on the Israeli town of Sderot caused no casualties and was condemned by both the Hamas-led government and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas but marked an inauspicious start to the ceasefire.
| You might say that if you actually thought it was a ceasefire. |
Olmert said he was optimistic the ceasefire would soon be extended to include the West Bank, with Palestinian factions announcing that they were now looking into “a lasting calm” with Israel after meeting in Gaza City. “We agreed to stay in contact and put in place plans and programmes which guarantee a general, mutual and lasting period of calm (with Israel),” said Ibrahim Abu Al Naja, who heads the High Committee of National and Islamic Movements umbrella group.
“A committee has been set up in this direction,” he told journalists following a meeting of militant factions at the office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
And now, the rocket attack:
The attack on the Israeli town of Sderot caused no casualties. Islamic Jihad said the morning rocket attack was because of fresh Israel operations in the West Bank overnight, while Haniya said the circumstances surrounding the strike were being reviewed.
The relatively unknown Army of Islam, one of three factions to have claimed the capture of an Israeli soldier near Gaza in June that sparked Israel’s five-month assault, said it rejected the deal. “The Army of Islam does not recognise the truce. We issue a warning to anyone who stops us fighting the Jews,” it said in an Internet statement whose authenticity could not be verified.
| One faction calls for hudna, one faction reassures the gullible Westerners, one faction keeps digging tunnels and one faction keeps firing rockets. |