Rocket attacks and airstrikes threaten Gaza ceasefire pledge

Israel indicated at the beginning of the week that it would halt airstrikes, but reserved the right to target those who fired rockets

A fresh round of Palestinian rocket attacks and lethal Israeli airstrikes, after the targeted killing of an Islamic Jihad militant, have left the ceasefire in Gaza under strain days after it was put in place.

Ten missiles were fired from Gaza yesterday, including a mortar launched against the Erez terminal, the main crossing point between Gaza and Israel. This followed the five rockets which had been fired the previous day, one of which slightly injured a nine-month-old baby when it hit a car. At least 10 Palestinians were reportedly killed in the series of airstrikes launched by Israel since the cycle of attacks and counter-attacks suddenly escalated on Wednesday.

Hamas told Egypt on Monday that it would enforce a ceasefire by the Palestinian factions, intended to halt a serious spike in violence after an attack by gunmen last Thursday, which left eight Israelis dead near the Egyptian border. The gunmen, who Israel says were affiliated to the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza-based militant group, infiltrated Israel from the Sinai desert. Israel indicated at the beginning of the week it would halt airstrikes, provided the rockets stopped, while reserving the right to attack those who had or were intending to fire rockets. On Monday, Israel's President Shimon Peres said on a tour of Israeli communities hit by rocket fire: "If they will cease fire, there will be a cease-fire."

But early on Wednesday, the military said that in a joint operation with the intelligence service Shin Bet it had killed an Islamic Jihad militant, Ismail Asmar, in an airstrike.

No rockets were fired on the previous day, Tuesday. The military added that Asmar, 35, was "involved in smuggling weapons and sought the execution of terrorist activity in Sinai", and that he had "operated with terror elements in the Gaza strip which have recently made several attempts to execute terror attacks in Sinai, on the Israel-Egypt border".

Islamic Jihad subsequently claimed responsibility for the rockets fired on Wednesday, saying they were in response to the killing of their militant.

The London-based Arab daily al-Hayat yesterday quoted the Islamic Jihad deputy secretary general Ziad a-Nahala as saying that his organisation was not interested in an escalation in Gaza.

The Israeli military declined to comment yesterday on a report by Alex Fishman, the experienced military analyst of Yedhiot Ahronot, Israel's biggest newspaper, saying that since Thursday's attack, the "political echelon" had given the Israel Defence Force and Shin Bet increased license to carry out targeted killings of militants in Gaza.

Mr Fishman said the military would henceforth apply as a central principle: "You're shooting? We'll retaliate with targeted killings based on lists [of wanted men]."

He went on to predict that since such assassinations were bound to provoke retaliation by the affected factions, the ceasefire would not last long and suggested "that very soon we will find ourselves in a military operation".