Gaza militants fire rocket into Israel

[January 31, 2009]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinian militants fire a rocket from Gaza on Saturday that landed close to the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Israeli forces and Gaza militants are supposed to refrain from attacking each other under a fragile cease-fire. But the truce has been breached several times, making diplomatic efforts to build a lasting agreement difficult.

The rocket attack was the first from Gaza since Thursday, said the Israeli military spokesman, who declined to be identified under army regulations. There was no claim of responsibility from any Palestinian militant group.

Also on Saturday, relations between Turkey and Israel remained tense, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasting Israel in an interview for turning the West Bank and Gaza Strip into an "an open-air prison."

Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers stopped fighting in late January after a fierce three-week Israeli offensive meant to halt eight years of near-daily rocket fire from Gaza at southern Israel.

Nearly 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the fighting, about half of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians, according to the government

Since then, Palestinian militants have fired rockets sporadically toward Israel and killed one soldier on Tuesday. Israel has conducted retaliatory strikes and pounded border tunnels it says Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.

Without a political agreement to anchor the cease-fire, Gaza and Israel's southern region are expected to continue to be unstable. The biggest winners in the Gaza war, however, appear to be hard-liners on both sides who are likely to continue taking uncompromising positions.

On Friday, top Gaza Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayeh emerged in public for the first time since the war began to declare victory. In Israel, leading hawk Benyamin Netanyahu is the front-runner in elections just a week away.

Hamas has ruled out a long-term cease-fire with Israel if officials do not open sealed border crossings with the coastal territory. Israel is unlikely to do so while the militant group rules Gaz and holds captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid in 2006.

President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, completed his first visit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday evening, but little substantive work can be done until Israel completes its elections.

On Saturday, Turkey's Erdogan criticized Israel for arresting leading Hamas parliamentarians and described the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "an open-air prison" in an interview with the Washington Post.

Erdogan said Israel's moves provoked Hamas. "You expect them to sit obediently?" he asked in the interview.

The Turkish Prime Minister's frank criticism has come as its relationship with Israel appears to be in a downward spiral.

On Thursday, Israeli President Shimon Peres had a heated exchange with Erdogan at a panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland in which he accused the Israelis of killing children.

Later on Friday, Erdogan suggested the high Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza during Israel's operation was intentional.

On Saturday, Erdogan said the Israeli government "should check itself" over its war in Gaza.

"They should not exploit this issue for the upcoming elections in Israel," he said.

[Associated Press; By DIAA HADID]

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