Israeli, Palestinian fighters continue attacks as Egyptian truce bid fails

Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian fighters launched retaliatory attacks on each other on Sunday and Egypt said that it had launched a failed bid to reach a ceasefire, following a day of deadly, escalated violence.

Nine Palestinian fighters and an Israeli civilian were killed on Saturday in a round of violence set off by a rocket attack earlier in the week. The exchange of fire continued overnight, with Palestinians firing 10 rockets fired into Israel in the early hours of the morning, and Israeli aircraft targeting six militant sites in Gaza, the military said.

Targets included three rocket-launching sites and a tunnel used by gunmen, an Israeli military statement said. Explosions were observed in several sites, it said, suggesting weapons sites were hit.

The truce with Israel was due to come into effect at 6:00 am (0400 GMT), said sources close to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip.

“The efforts and intensive contacts led by senior Egyptian intelligence service officials led to a national consensus to restore calm” with Israel, a leader of one Palestinian group, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.

If the agreement holds it will mark the end of the bloodiest exchanges between the two sides since a tacit ceasefire was agreed between Gaza Palestinian militants and Israel in late August.

The first Israeli attack early Saturday afternoon killed five members of the al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, said Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for Gaza’s emergency services.

Another three fighters were critically wounded, he added.

As tit-for-tat fighting continued into the night, Israeli aircraft struck more targets in Gaza, killing four more fighters and wounding at least two, witnesses and Palestinian officials said.

At least two of the fighters were killed as they tried to fire a Grad rocket into Israel, an al-Quds spokesman said.

The Israeli military said of the earlier raid that the air force had fired on a “group of terrorists preparing to fire long-range rockets” and that the attack had “prevented the attempted firing.”

The other strikes were aimed at similar targets, it said.

Reprisal attacks began after sunset Saturday, and police said that by mid-evening 21 rockets had been fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

As Palestinian rockets and mortar shells pounded Israel Saturday, Israel’s police said they were raising their national alert level to its second-highest.

One Israeli, wounded by shrapnel in Ashkelon, later died in hospital, Israeli medical officials and police said. Four others were wounded, two of them seriously.

The city of Ashdod, the nearby town of Gan Yavneh and the city of Ashkelon, to the south, were all hit, police said.

One rocket was fired towards the city of Beersheeva in the Negev desert but appeared to have struck open ground, police said.

“Tough response will be even tougher”

A statement released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had phoned the mayors of Ashkelon, Ashdod and Beersheeva and told them that the military’s “tough response will be even tougher if necessary.”

The United Nations, which runs an extensive aid network in Gaza and is among foreign powers trying to revive moribund peace talks between Israel and the U.S.-backed Palestinian administration in the occupied West Bank, had also urged calm.

“The recent escalations are very worrying, said Richard Miron, a spokesman for U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry.

“It’s vital to de-escalate now, without any delay. We strongly appeal for calm and an end to violence and bloodshed,” he said in a statement.

The al-Quds Brigades, in its own statement, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, posting a video on its website that it said showed the launching of five of the rockets.

Spokesman Abu Ahmed accused Israel of carrying out its raid in order to heighten tensions so it could renege on freeing 550 Palestinian prisoners –part of a prisoner-swap deal with Gaza rulers Hamas for the liberation of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israel released 477 prisoners in exchange for Shalit earlier this month and is due to free another 550 within two months.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also claimed responsibility for the attacks.

And a spokesman for Hamas’s Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades blamed Israel for the escalation.

“The occupation is completely responsible for the crime in Rafah and all of the resistance factions cannot leave the shedding of our martyrs’ blood unanswered,” spokesman Abu Obeida said.

Three Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip Thursday hit a base of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, witnesses said. Israel said it was in retaliation for the earlier attack.

In keeping with Israeli government policy, a military statement said Hamas bore ultimate responsibility “for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip”.

Islamic Jihad released images of what it said was the firing by its men of a truck-mounted multiple rocket-launcher, a platform not previously seen in Gaza. Israel says Gazan arsenals have been boosted by gun-running from Libya since the fall of its ruler, Muammar Qaddafi.

Israel demanded international intervention to stop the Palestinian attacks.

“We seek no confrontation with the Palestinians and do not want to inflame the situation, but we will not absorb shelling after shelling without a response,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, threatening unspecified “consequences.”

An Egyptian official later said all sides had agreed, at Cairo’s behest, to cease fire early on Sunday.

“Egypt will pursue its contacts with all the sides until the agreement goes into effect,” the official said. Neither Israel nor Palestinian factions had any immediate comment.