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Israel pounds militant targets in Gaza

GAZA CITY (AP) -- Israeli warplanes sent missiles slamming into a car carrying Hamas militants and a load of weapons before dawn Sunday, then demolished arms factories belonging to two Palestinian militant groups, the army said, in widening reprisals against Gaza rocket squads.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened tougher action if the intensified rocket fire on Israeli border communities didn't cease.
The sixth straight day of airstrikes came as an uneasy truce between warring Palestinian factions set in. Masked Hamas and Fatah gunmen who had controlled the streets and taken over apartment buildings in the previous week scaled back their presence sharply, and residents who had holed up at home seeking refuge from the gunbattles ventured out to stock up on supplies at busy shops.
Children went back to school in time for final exams, and adults returned to work.
Four previous truces last week quickly collapsed, but Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he expected the cease-fire deal reached Saturday to stick because of Israel's military action.
"No one would accept to fight one another while the Israelis are shelling Gaza," he said.
More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in fighting that broke out after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah stationed thousands of loyalist security forces on the streets of Gaza City without consulting Hamas, its partner in the Palestinian governing alliance.
The infighting has threatened the survival of the fragile national unity government, formed in March to end an earlier round of factional bloodshed.
Israel added an overlapping layer of violence by sending warplanes after Hamas rocket squads whose attacks on Israeli border towns have sown panic and sent thousands fleeing to safer ground.
Israel has carried out 21 airstrikes against Gaza since Tuesday, the army said, and at their weekly meeting on Sunday, Cabinet ministers discussed how to respond to the rocket barrages.
"If the diplomatic and military efforts we have taken do not bring calm, we will have to escalate our response," Olmert said at the start of the session.
He did not elaborate, but on Saturday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said time was not ripe for a broad offensive in Gaza.
One idea that was being floated was the stationing of an international force along Gaza's border with Egypt to curb weapons smuggling to militants, and possibly to disarm them, a Cabinet minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the idea was preliminary.
It wasn't clear whether the international community would be willing to assume such responsibilities or whether the idea would enjoy broad support in the Israeli government.
Israeli intelligence says an international force stationed along its northern border hasn't prevented Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas from replenishing stocks depleted during last summer's war with Israel.
"We are concerned that extremists in Gaza have taken Lebanon as an example and are determined to build up a terror military machine that can be an even greater threat to Israel," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
Regev said the success of the U.N. force in Lebanon would be a test case influencing Israel's view of possible future international deployments.
Three rockets struck Israel on Sunday, including one that hit an empty home. In all, more than 120 rockets have landed since Tuesday, none of them causing serious casualties.
The rockets and airstrikes have destroyed a 6-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza militants.
Three people, including at least one Hamas militant, died Sunday in the air attack on the car in Gaza City, bringing to 27 the number of Palestinians killed in the strikes. The vehicle burst into a ball of flame, witnesses said, and the army attributed that to the weapons inside.
Mohammed Madhoun said aircraft mistakenly targeted his stereo and video store in the northern town of Beit Lahia for a weapons workshop, destroying it. A storefront next door, empty for the past year, had been a metal workshop, Madhoun said. The army stood by its claim that the site was a Hamas weapons factory.
For the first time since the airstrikes began, Israel targeted weapons operations belonging to Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group that has also been involved in rocket attacks on Israel. The army explained that it would go after all rocket operations, including Islamic Jihad's.
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posted by mhai @ 9:18 AM