Agence France-Presse,
The armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas declared a five-month truce with Israel over on Tuesday after claiming to have fired scores of rockets into the Jewish state on its Independence Day.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz called an emergency meeting of security chiefs on the holiday to discuss a response, with further talks scheduled to be chaired by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday.
But although Hamas said it was abandoning the November 26 truce after Israeli raids killed nine Palestinians at the weekend, a spokesman emphasised that the Palestinian government was standing by the truce for now.
“The truce no longer exists,” Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, told AFP. “It's the Israeli enemy that has not respected it and now it's the turn of Palestinian groups.”
A spokesman for prime minister Ismail Haniya, a Hamas politician, said the government “remains bound to the truce to preserve the interests of the Palestinian people and to protect them from the crimes and aggressions of the enemy.
“The government warns against any collapse in the truce if occupation forces continue their aggression,” Ghazi Hamad added in a statement.
For his part, visiting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in Rome that “today's rupture was an exceptional event that won't last.”
Hamas called the truce in November because “you can't negotiate under the noise of bombs,” he said at a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
“We have no other choice than that of peace. When an incident happens, we have to work hard so that it isn't repeated.”
The US State Department warned Palestinians not to abandon the ceasefire, saying the “pathway to Palestine” and an independent state lies through negotiations, not violence.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana echoed the warning saying the decision by Hamas's armed wing was “very bad news”.
“I plead with everybody on both sides to really behave in a constructive manner because there is a window of opportunity in which things that are positive may take place.”
Peretz held an emergency security meeting in Jerusalem with the army chief of staff and senior officers following the rocket firing.
“Israel views this morning's incident as extremely serious and will take action against those involved at an adequate time and way, and with no compromises,” a senior security official told AFP.
Haniya blamed Israel for the violence, alluding to the army raids on Saturday and Sunday that killed two Palestinian teenagers and five militants, in the bloodiest two days of Israeli-Palestinian violence in months.
“There was a positive unified Palestinian position but, unfortunately, we were surprised by the expansion and escalation of aggression” by Israel, the prime minister told reporters in Gaza.
Under the November truce, the army withdrew from Gaza and militants agreed to halt rocket fire. The ceasefire has largely held despite violations by both sides.
But Hamas's armed wing declared it fired nearly 30 rockets and 61 mortar rounds into the Jewish state on Tuesday as it celebrated the 59th anniversary of its creation, “to avenge the assassinations committed by the enemy.”
It marked the first time that Hamas had claimed responsibility for rocket attacks since the truce took effect.
An army spokesman said “a large number” of projectiles were launched into Israel. Israeli helicopters opened fire on open areas from which the rockets were fired.
On Wednesday, Olmert is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting with ministers and the defence establishment to “discuss Israel's reaction to the Hamas attack,” a senior government official told AFP.
Israeli security sources said they suspected the operation could have been intended as a diversionary tactic aimed at capturing Israeli soldiers, as on June 25 when a conscripted corporal was seized in a cross-border raid.
Israeli officials have warned repeatedly in recent weeks that the army could launch an incursion into Gaza. Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said no decision had been made, but “all possibilities are being explored.”
Hamas's armed wing warned that any Israeli incursion would “open the gates of hell” and that Gaza would “turn into a cemetery for its soldiers.”
Tuesday's was the first serious rocket barrage since a Palestinian unity government took office on March 17, grouping Haniya's Islamist Hamas faction and the secular Fatah party headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
