Hamas shoots Israeli and breaks own truce
Pastor Dale Morgan
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Monday March 19, 9:13 PM Reuters
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Hamas shoots Israeli and breaks own truce*
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - The armed wing of Hamas said its gunmen shot an Israeli
near the Gaza Strip on Monday, effectively breaking a truce with Israel
declared by the Islamist group in November.
An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office called the
shooting a "terror" attack.
The Israeli electricity company employee was working near the Karni
commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza when he was shot and
seriously wounded, Israeli rescue services said.
"The (Hamas) Qassam Brigades announced its responsibility for shooting a
Zionist (Israeli) and firing two mortar bombs against a gathering of
Zionist soldiers near Karni crossing," the statement by Hamas's armed
wing said.
"Our strikes against the enemy will continue," it added.
The attack occurred two days after Hamas formed a unity government with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. It was the first
claimed by Hamas's armed wing since the November truce, which it had upheld.
Other groups, such as Islamic Jihad, stayed out of the truce and
continued to fire makeshift rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Olmert has vowed to boycott the new government in its entirety,
including non-Hamas ministers, saying its platform does not meet
international demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept
interim peace deals.
"This is precisely the type of terror that the new Palestinian
government steadfastly refuses to condemn, thus rejecting a principle
condition placed upon it by the international community," the official
in Olmert's office said.
A year-old diplomatic boycott of the Palestinian government eased on
Monday when Norway's deputy foreign minister met Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza.
The unity government says it will "respect" previous interim peace
agreements with Israel. Its platform does not recognise Israel and
asserts that Palestinian resistance in "all its forms" is a legitimate
right.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch)