Period of Calm at Risk as Violence Flares in Gaza Strip

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip unleashed a barrage of mortar shells Wednesday that injured a Jewish settler, and the Israeli military fired a missile at Hamas militants taking part in the attacks, critically wounding one of them.

The clash, the most sustained in Gaza since Israel and the Palestinians declared a cessation of hostilities more than three months ago, threatened to chip away at public support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the coastal territory this summer.

A new public opinion poll released Wednesday showed support for his initiative eroding slightly amid concerns that relinquishing Gaza could pose a security risk to Israel. Nonetheless, 56% of Israelis surveyed in the Tel Aviv University poll, down from a high of about two-thirds in surveys earlier this year, said they backed the pullout.

Wednesday’s confrontation in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis was in some ways reminiscent of the clashes between Hamas and the Israeli army that were common at the height of the Palestinian uprising. Over the last two years, Israelis used missiles to kill most members of Hamas’ top echelon.

But it has been months since such a strike took place. Hamas, as well as most other militant factions, declared a unilateral halt to attacks against Israel this year. That ad hoc accord was separate from an Israeli-Palestinian truce declared at a Feb. 8 summit in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri, speaking to reporters in Gaza City, said the latest violence jeopardized what the two sides have been calling the tahdia, Arabic for calm.

“Until this moment, there is no official decision to stop the quiet period, but I think it is about to collapse because the Israeli enemy did not give it any meaning, continuing with aggression,” Abu Zuhri said.

Before dawn Wednesday near the southern Gaza town of Rafah, a member of Hamas’ military wing was killed in the explosion of what the army said was a bomb he had been carrying. Hamas blamed Israeli troops for the death and said the man had been on a “jihadist” mission.

The Israeli military said that over a period of about three hours Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian militants fired 15 mortar shells and two rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza. The Israeli military responded by firing the missile from an airborne drone.

The Palestinian town of Khan Yunis lies directly across from Neve Dekalim, the largest of the 21 Gaza settlements slated for evacuation beginning in August, which was hit by several shells. Four smaller communities in the northern West Bank are to be uprooted as well.

The mortar fire triggered fresh Israeli accusations that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was not doing enough to crack down on groups such as Hamas, which the Israeli military blames for dozens of rocket and mortar attacks against Gaza settlements and southern Israeli communities in recent weeks. Most of the projectiles have fallen without causing injuries or serious damage.

“The sheer quantity of rockets fired shows that these attacks are coordinated and continuous,” said Capt. Yael Hartmann, an Israeli army spokeswoman. “If we can identify the cells, the Palestinian Authority can too.”

Israel is far from immune to challenges from its own extremist groups as the pullout approaches.

On Wednesday, an Israeli court indicted three settlers from the northern West Bank who allegedly had intended to set an automobile on fire in the middle of a busy freeway. Authorities said their plan failed when the car, loaded with kerosene-soaked mattresses, failed to start when they were ready to drive to their destination.

Also Wednesday, a group of rabbis opposed to the Gaza withdrawal praised the thousands of protesters who had blocked Israeli thoroughfares at evening rush hour on Monday. In its statement, the Settler Rabbis Council expressed support for what it called a holy war against the pullout.

In the wake of Monday’s protests, Israeli politicians, even leftist ones, called for harsher police action if needed to maintain order.

“The police are trying to do things as gently as possible,” Shimon Peres, the veteran Labor Party politician who is deputy premier, told Israel Radio. “If there is an escalation in protests, I believe there will be an escalation in the response.”

Abbas, meanwhile, suffered a setback Wednesday when the Palestinian legislature, controlled by his Fatah faction, rejected changes he sought in the electoral law. The Palestinian leader had pressed for reforms that probably would have lessened some incumbents’ chances for reelection to the parliament.

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Times special correspondent Fayed abu Shammaleh contributed to this report.