Post by Salem6 on Jan 17, 2008 13:17:40 GMT
Palestinian militants have escalated rocket fire from Gaza and Israel says it will keep up military and economic pressure, after two days of bloodshed.
Two Palestinians were killed in an air strike targeting militants
More than 22 Palestinians, including some civilians, have been killed in Israeli raids on the territory which is controlled by the militant group Hamas.
Hamas has fired salvoes of unguided rockets causing injuries in Israel.
The sharp rise in violence in the Gaza Strip comes after a recent US-led push for progress in peace talks.
On Wednesday Israel carried out air attacks on Gaza which killed five people, including at least three civilians who Israel said had been killed by mistake.
Two people later died when an Israeli missile hit a vehicle near al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli army said the vehicle had been transporting weapons. The identities of those killed was not immediately known.
Israel says its military action is intended to stamp out daily rocket and mortar fire into Israel by Palestinian militants.
In recent months, Hamas has been observing an informal moratorium on attacking Israel, but it claimed on Thursday to have fired 14 Qassam rockets, after launching 79 rockets and mortars on Wednesday.
No casualties were reported in the latest salvoes, after 10 people in the Israeli town of Sderot were lightly wounded on Wednesday.
Shops, businesses and government offices have been closed across Gaza and the West Bank in protest at the latest Israeli military action.
Condolences
Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said there was no need to end the siege on the impoverished Mediterranean strip, or end the boycott of Hamas, which has been shunned by Israel and its allies as a terrorist organisation.
Israelis in Sderot, near Gaza, have borne brunt of increased rocket fire
"The military and economic pressure as well as the international isolation of the Gaza Strip will end up producing results," Mr Ramon said in a radio interview.
Hamas's Damascus-based leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to sever peace talks with Israel.
Mr Abbas leads to the rival Fatah movement, which Hamas ousted from Gaza in June to become the undisputed ruler of Gaza, having previously been part of a unity government with Fatah.
Mr Abbas telephoned senior Hamas figure Mahmoud Zahhar on Wednesday to offer his condolences on the killing of his son by Israeli forces on Monday.
Correspondents said it was the first such contact since the factional schism, which left Fatah in charge of Palestinian areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"The telephone conversation was very friendly and the two leaders spoke at length about the current political situation and they both stressed the unity of the Palestinian people regardless of the differences," said Hamas spokesman Tahar al-Nono.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7193559.stm