World

Hamas Militants: The Truce Is Over

April 24, 2007 / 9:11 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells toward Israel on Tuesday and said they considered a five-month truce with Israel to have come to an end.

Hamas politicians stopped just short of declaring the cease-fire over. However, it's unlikely the militants would have launched the attack, the biggest by the tightly organized group in months, without the tacit approval of Hamas politicians.

The barrage, which came on Israel's 59th independence day, did not cause any damage or injury. However, it marked the first time Hamas acknowledged firing shells toward Israel since agreeing to a cease-fire along the Gaza-Israel border in November.

The military wing of Hamas said the attack was retaliation for Israel's killing of nine Palestinians, mostly wanted militants, over the weekend, reports . Hamas has been holding an Israeli soldier for 10 months and it promised to kidnap and kill many more.

In other developments:

(AP)

More than 1,000 Israelis entered the abandoned West Bank Jewish settlement of Homesh on Tuesday, the military said, setting up the second confrontation over the site in less than a month. Israel evacuated Homesh and three other settlements in the northern West Bank as part of its 2005 "disengagement."

The cash-strapped Palestinian government is seeking a major injection of aid from Europe, reports

. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is on a seven-nation tour, aimed at ending crippling western sanctions. The European Union and U.S. cut off nearly a billion dollars in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority when Hamas took power a year ago.

(AP)

One of those stops was The Vatican, where Abbas met with Pope Benedict XVI (left). A Vatican statement issued after the talks praised recent moves to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying it "appreciated" them and the help that the international community was providing. It made no reference to the Hamas declaration.

Israel kicked off its 59th Independence Day with dancing in the streets, reports

. Then people headed for parks and beaches across the country for the most popular holiday tradition — the barbecue. Hotels are packed at Israel's four seas, the Dead, the Red, the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. Security is tight. Fearing Palestinian terrorist attacks, Israel closed its borders with the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas appeared to defend the attack, saying Israel was to blame for any escalation of tensions.

"We made great efforts at keeping the truce and there was a positive Palestinian position, but unfortunately this position was met by expanding the aggression and escalating it against the Palestinian people," he said. "It's not a Palestinian problem, it is an Israeli problem."

Haniyeh's spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, also blamed Israel, but said the Palestinian government "affirms the importance of maintaining the truce and protecting it."

Israel Radio, citing military officials, said the rocket attack apparently had been intended to create a diversion in order to capture an Israeli soldier near the Gaza border. In June, Hamas-allied militants had tunneled from Gaza into Israel and seized an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who is still being held.

Two of the Palestinians killed this weekend were civilians.

The barrage did not cause any damage or injury, but it marked the first time Hamas acknowledged firing shells toward Israel since agreeing to a cease-fire along the Gaza-Israel border in November. Hamas is tightly organized, and Israel says attacks from Gaza have the tacit approval from the militant group's political leaders.

In Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense minister discussed a possible response. More security consultations were planned for Wednesday, government officials said.

The Israeli military has warned of a Hamas arms buildup in Gaza, and has readied contingency plans for a large-scale invasion of the territory. However, Olmert said earlier this month that the time is not ripe for a major ground campaign.

Hamas had held back attacks on Israel for months, especially during power-sharing talks with the Fatah movement of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. A spokesman for the Islamic group's armed wing said the group considered the truce over.

"The cease-fire has been over for a long time, and Israel is responsible for that," the spokesman, Abu Obeida, told the Voice of Palestine radio station. "We are ready to kidnap more and more, and kill more and more of your soldiers."

Hamas-allied militants have demanded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for the release of Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier.

On Monday, Olmert said freeing soldiers is important to the government, but that it would not repeat "mistakes made in the past" by releasing violent prisoners who then carried out more attacks against Israelis. But Olmert said there would be "no escape in the end from making a difficult decision" on trading prisoners for the captured troops.

Arab nations have delegated Egypt and Jordan to approach Israel to push an Arab League peace plan that envisages full Arab recognition of Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from territories captured in the 1967 Middle East War. It also calls for Palestinian statehood.

Israel has said it is ready to listen to the proposals and explain its own concerns.

Benedict asked Abbas about the situation in the region, and Abbas responded that he hoped the pontiff could help resolve the problems.

Benedict had greeted Abbas with a warm "Welcome" and full head of state protocol, and the two men spoke briefly — about 12 minutes — before Abbas met with the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.