GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian militants yesterday bombarded southern Israel with rockets and mortars, part of a new outburst of violence that threatens fragile Egyptian efforts to broker a truce in the Gaza Strip.
No one was hurt in the early morning attacks. The flare-up in violence began Friday when Hamas militants fired mortar shells that killed a 48-year-old Israeli man while he was gardening at his home near the Gaza border. Three other people were wounded.
Israel retaliated by firing missiles at two Hamas police stations late Friday, killing five militants.
Israel said militants fired 21 rockets and four mortars by late yesterday afternoon, directly striking a house in the rocket-scarred border town of Sderot, a frequent target for militants. Another landed next to a Jewish seminary and another in the courtyard of a local college.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is expected in Israel early this week to discuss his efforts to wrest a cease-fire from the two sides. A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing said his group would “continue fire until the last moment” before a cease-fire is completed.
Palestinian militants frequently shoot crude rockets and mortars into southern Israel from Gaza.
The attacks, which have killed 14 people since late 2001, often provoke Israeli air strikes and ground incursions that kill far more Palestinians. Hostilities have ebbed since more than 120 Palestinians died in a broad Israeli military offensive two months ago.
Though both sides appear eager to halt the fighting, Hamas also wants Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, which is meant to pressure the group to stop Palestinian militants from firing their salvos into Israel.
Officials in Gaza said they had turned off two of three turbines at a power plant providing electricity to thousands of Gazans because Israel had not provided enough diesel to run the plants.
Ninety percent of Gaza City, the territory’s biggest city, was plunged into darkness last night, energy official Kaanan Obeid said.
An Israeli army spokesman said Israel did not deliver as much fuel as planned to Gaza last week because Palestinian militants attacked the crossing Israel uses to deliver the diesel.
It was not immediately clear if the power station had actually run out of fuel or whether Gaza’s Hamas rulers wanted to exaggerate the impression of crisis.
Israel has in the past limited its rations of fuel and other supplies to Gaza in an attempt to pressure militants to stop firing rockets at nearby Israeli towns.
But government spokesman David Baker denied Israel was to blame for the electricity cutback.
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