Rockets, airstrikes in absence of firm Gaza truce

[February 25, 2009]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Militants in Gaza launched rockets at southern Israel on Wednesday and Israeli planes attacked smuggling tunnels as a stable truce between the two sides remained elusive.

Militants fired two rockets early in the day and Israeli aircraft struck tunnels in the southern Gaza town of Rafah several hours later, the Israeli military said.

There were no injuries reported in either the rocket attacks or the airstrike.

Palestinians working in the tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border evacuated before the strike after they saw Egyptian troops across the border pull back, presumably when they were warned by Israel, according to Hamas security officials.

The rocket attacks and retaliatory airstrikes have become routine in the aftermath of Israel's three-week Gaza offensive. The sides independently declared informal cease-fires on Jan. 18, but Egyptian-mediated talks on a longer-term agreement have been unsuccessful so far and sporadic violence persists.

The rocket attacks have been claimed by smaller militant groups, not by Gaza's Hamas rulers, but Israel holds Hamas responsible as the ruling power in Gaza. A small faction calling itself Hezbollah Palestine took responsibility for Wednesday's attack in a statement sent to reporters in Gaza.

Hamas wants Israel to open Gaza's border crossings, but Israel says it won't until Hamas frees an Israeli soldier held since June 2006. Hamas doesn't want to link the reopening of the crossings to the soldier's fate, saying he should be part of a prisoner exchange deal independent of the truce talks.

Israel sealed its borders with Gaza after Islamic Hamas militants overran the territory in June, 2007. The takeover resulted in the creation of feuding Palestinian governments, with Hamas in charge of Gaza and the West Bank controlled by the moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

Reconciliation talks between the two groups were due to begin in Cairo later Wednesday. An accord between the two groups is seen as key to securing international funding for Gaza's reconstruction in the aftermath of the recent fighting.

[Associated Press; By MATTI FRIEDMAN]

Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report.

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