Jihad says 'rockets will rain on Israel' as 7 Qassams hit Negev

Palestinian militants in Gaza on Tuesday fired seven Qassam rockets and a mortar shell at the western Negev, as Islamic Jihad threatened to increase its cross-border rocket fire.

'Our rockets will not stop and it will be like the rain over all the Zionist towns around the Gaza Strip, said Abu Hamza, a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group.

The rocket attacks came just days before a six-month truce between Israel and Gaza factions was set to expire.

One of the rockets, fired late Tuesday afternoon, exploded in the soccer field of the Sapir College in the Negev town of Sderot. There were no casualties reported in the incident, but a number of people were treated for shock.

The other four Qassams exploded earlier in the day in open fields in the Eshkol Regional Council and the shell struck the nearby area of Sdot Negev.

After the cross-border rocket fire, The Israel Air Force targeted a rocket-launching squad in northern Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, the army said. Militants reported no casualties, but fired rockets into Israel shortly thereafter.

The Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza said it launched the first four rockets as revenge, after undercover IDF troops killed one of its top commanders in the West Bank earlier Tuesday.

Witnesses in the West Bank said the undercover troops shot at Jihad Nawahda, 20, while he was outside a coffee shop in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin.

Troops surrounded the coffee shop and shot at the militant when he tried to flee arrest. Security sources said he died on the way to hospital.

Nawahda had been arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces and released a few months ago. An IDF spokeswoman said troops had gone to arrest the militant, who was suspected of plotting to carry out attacks in the Jenin area. The troops opened fire at him as he tried to flee arrest, the spokeswoman said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced just after the rocket attacks that border crossings with the Gaza Strip would be closed again, due to security concerns.

Hamas leaders agree they won't extend Gaza truce

Meanwhile, Hamas' leadership on Monday adopted a united stance not to extend the truce with Israel, which is set to expire on Friday, December 19. This stance comes after group leaders expressed contradictory positions with regard to the cease-fire on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Damascus-based head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshal, had said precisely that, but Gaza-based leaders of the movement insisted that no decision had yet been reached.

Monday, however, Hamas' spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Ayman Taha, said the movement had concluded that there was no point in extending the truce "as long as Israel isn't abiding by its terms" - though he added that talks on continuing the cease-fire were still taking place.

Specifically, Taha said, Israel was supposed to have expanded the truce to the West Bank - something Hamas demanded but Israel in fact never promised - and opened the Gaza border crossings, and "this hasn't happened."

Asked whether this means Hamas will launch a massive barrage at Israeli targets on Friday, Taha replied that the organization would only respond to Israeli aggression.

Barak said on Monday that Israel is not "running into Gaza," but is also not afraid of a military operation there.

"If the lull is violated and the situation requires it," he told Austrian President Heinz Fischer, in Jerusalem, "we will act in the proper manner."

Israeli defense sources said they believe Hamas is still internally divided over whether to extend the truce, but in any case, the army will heighten its alert along the Gaza border lest Hamas opt for escalation.

Amos Gilad, who heads the Defense Ministry's political-security department, told Israel Radio Monday that if Hamas violates the cease-fire, "we need to take suitable military action." Nevertheless, he added, he opposes a large-scale ground operation in Gaza, because "we've already tried military solutions in the past, and this has not always brought immediate results."

Moreover, said Gilad, such an operation would make Israel responsible for 1.5 million Palestinian residents of Gaza, inflame the Muslim world and endanger the peace with Jordan and Egypt.