Occupation Kills Jihad Fighter, 24 Hrs Critical to Gaza Truce

Source: Al-Manar TV, 06-11-2008
One day after the ‘Israeli' crime that killed six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, another resistance fighter joined Wednesday night his martyred friends.

An ‘Israeli' occupation airstrike in northern Gaza has killed one Palestinian resistance fighter and injured four others, Palestinian sources said Wednesday night. The ‘Israeli' occupation army confirmed identifying and targeting a rocket launching cell.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, confirmed that one person was martyred and the Islamic Jihad resistance group has identified that man as their own.

The attack comes one day after six Gaza resistance fighters were martyred during an ‘Israeli' occupation army operation in Gaza - the first since ‘Israel' and the resistance armed groups in the Strip agreed to an armistice, five months ago.

'Israel' and Gaza's Hamas rulers sought to contain the fallout from the worst fighting since a cease-fire agreement went into effect in June, but the continued flaring up of violence threatened to unravel it anew.

In response to the ‘Israeli' crimes which left six Palestinian fighters dead Tuesday night, Gaza resistance fighters pounded the occupied territories with dozens of rockets on Wednesday.

Islamic Jihad resistance group has earlier fired two rockets at the western Negev town of Sderot. One of its leaders, Khader Habib, declared the truce over.

Hamas, which agreed to the Egyptian-mediated truce, said Israel was breaching it. The group also claimed responsibility for dozens of rockets fired at the western Negev on Wednesday. Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades also claimed responsibility for the latest Qassam rocket.

"The occupier has a clear plan to destroy the truce and drown us in blood," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Barhoum said the resistance group has fired deep into the occupied territories on Wednesday to demonstrate the price of continued ‘Israeli' aggression. At the same time, he said, Hamas had contacted Egyptian mediators to find ways of keeping the truce intact.

"We have no intention of violating the quiet," ‘Israeli' War Minister Ehud Barak claimed on a tour of southern occupied territories bordering Gaza. "But in any place where we need to thwart an action against ‘Israeli' soldiers and civilians, we will act," he added.

Thousands of Palestinian mourners rushed slain resistance fighters through the streets of the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, waving green Hamas flags and vowing revenge. Gaza residents crowded into hospitals, as ambulances delivered the dead and injured.

'ISRAELI' ARMY: NEXT 24 HOURS CRITICAL TO CEASEFIRE'S FUTURE
Meanwhile, a source in the ‘Israeli' war establishment told ‘Israeli' electronic site Ynet on Wednesday night that the next 24 hours will be crucial to ceasefire's future, adding that the ‘Israeli' occupation army is "preparing for every possible scenario."

The occupation army stressed that the Tuesday's operation, dubbed "Operation Double Dare," was a surgical one, meant to curb an imminent threat.

As for the intense Qassam fire on the western Negev, an ‘Israeli' war establishment source said that "while we expected Hamas to retaliate, we will not allow the rocket fire to become a patter. If the rocket fire does not stop, we will respond as we see fit."

Meanwhile, Barak ordered the ‘Israeli' war establishment to keep the goods crossings between the occupied territories and Gaza closed on Thursday as well, in light of the continued rocket fire from the Strip.