Gazan Rockets Threaten Truce
Islamic Jihad Cites Israeli Operation in West Bank

By Griff Witte and Samuel Sockol
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

JERUSALEM, June 24 -- Palestinian fighters lobbed rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday, jeopardizing a six-day-old truce in and around the Gaza Strip.

The armed Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said the rockets were in response to an Israeli army operation in the northern West Bank city of Nablus early Tuesday. An Islamic Jihad commander, Tariq Abu Ghali, 23, was killed in the incursion, along with another group member.

Although the rocket fire did not cause major injuries, it highlighted a condition of the cease-fire agreement that could become its undoing: The deal applies only to Gaza and does not restrain either Israel or armed Palestinian groups from striking in the West Bank. Islamic Jihad has said it is justified in answering Israeli attacks in the West Bank with strikes from Gaza.

Israel did not immediately respond militarily to the rocket fire. "Any rockets fired from the Gaza Strip are a grave violation of the calm," said David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman.

Later, a defense official said that in response to the rocket attack, Israel would not open its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The crossings were to have opened to allow for imports, increased in scale under the truce, to reach the impoverished strip. But Israeli military liaison official Peter Lerner said they will stay closed until further notice.

It was unclear whether the rocket attack would have any long-term impact on the truce, which is supposed to last for six months.

"It is essential for the cease-fire or calm to be sustained," Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said at a Berlin conference on Palestinian security. The authority holds sway in the West Bank; its leaders are trying to rebuild relations with Hamas, the armed Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.

Fayyad called for a change in Israel's military policies in the West Bank, saying there is "absolutely no justification for continuing raids by the Israeli army in our area."

The Berlin conference resulted in a pledge of $242 million to upgrade the security forces and judicial system of the Palestinian Authority. The money is part of a broader $7.7 billion aid package promised by a coalition of countries in December after a conference in Paris.

Hamas had initially pushed for the West Bank to be included in the Gaza truce, but it ultimately relented. Israel has said it needs the freedom to operate in the West Bank in order to prevent a Hamas takeover there similar to the one that occurred in Gaza last June, when the Islamist movement broke a power-sharing arrangement with the rival Fatah party.

The truce followed months of negotiation mediated by Egypt. Israel is seeking quiet for residents of southern Israel who have faced a daily bombardment of homemade rockets over the past year. Hamas is hoping to use the time to regroup and win further Israeli concessions, including an end to a severe economic blockade.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday to discuss the deal. Among the issues still to be resolved are the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is being held captive in Gaza.

"We demanded, and we received, promises that the Rafah crossing will not be opened until the solving of the Shalit issue," said an official in Olmert's office who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Mubarak, however, said in a televised interview Tuesday night that the two issues should not be linked.

In addition to trying to free Shalit, Israel is attempting to win the return of two soldiers captured by the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in 2006. Their kidnapping sparked a month-long war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, but there have been no indications that either soldier is alive. Israel's military rabbinate began a review this week to determine whether the soldiers can be declared dead, a decision that could influence how much Israel is willing to offer Hezbollah in any exchange.

The dealing came as Olmert tried to keep his government together. Embroiled in a corruption probe, Olmert could face a preliminary vote Wednesday to dissolve the Israeli parliament. Coalition partners have threatened to support the motion, and he has vowed to take away their ministries if they do.

Sockol reported from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Correspondent Craig Whitlock in Berlin and special correspondent Islam Abdulkarim in Gaza City contributed to this report.