Hamas Fires Missiles Into Israel

JERUSALEM, April 24 -- The military wing of Hamas fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel on Tuesday and reiterated that it would no longer abide by a five-month-old truce with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

Two of the six crude rockets fired from Gaza landed inside Israel but caused no injuries or damage.

Eight mortar shells also landed in open areas during a two-hour attack. Israeli helicopter gunships responded quickly, firing on the launch sites.

Israeli military officials said the missile attacks, which further eroded a cease-fire with Hamas agreed to last November, were designed to mask a Hamas attempt to enter Israel on the ground.

Although Israeli military officials would not elaborate, spokesmen from Hamas's military wing indicated that it was an attempt to kidnap an Israeli soldier.

"The cease-fire has been over for a long time, and Israel is responsible for that," a masked Hamas gunman, who used the nom de guerre Abu Obaida, told reporters in Gaza. "We are ready to kidnap more and more, and kill more and more of your soldiers."

Last June, Hamas gunmen spearheaded a cross-border raid from Gaza on an Israeli army post that resulted in the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who is still being held.

Israeli forces soon responded by pushing into Gaza, in the first major ground incursion since Israel evacuated its soldiers and settlers from the strip in summer 2005.

Last month, Hamas gunmen in Gaza shot and wounded an Israeli utility worker inside Israel, declaring an end to the truce. But the group had not carried out any attacks since then.

The Tuesday strikes, which were followed by news conferences, appeared aimed at reviving the military wing's reputation as the leader of what it calls armed resistance to the Israeli occupation. The movement does not recognize the Jewish state.

Israeli military and intelligence officials have warned that Hamas has smuggled tons of explosives and more-advanced weapons, including longer-range antitank missiles, into Gaza in preparation for a resumption of attacks on Israel.

But until a flurry of rocket fire over the weekend, which followed Israeli operations in the West Bank that killed nine Palestinians, most of them from armed groups, the strikes had declined in recent months. The cease-fire was never extended to the West Bank.

There were no indications that Israel was preparing a major retaliation. But it has been clear that Israel's patience with the attacks is running out, with rising pressure on the government to stop them.

Hamas, which heads the governing cabinet of the Palestinian Authority, has made a distinction between its political party and military wing, known as the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

But Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas also blamed Israel for the fraying cease-fire, telling reporters in Gaza that "we made great efforts in preserving the truce."

"It's not a Palestinian problem," Haniyeh said. "It's an Israeli problem."