TEL AVIV, Israel, June 13 (UPI) -- Fighting in and around the Gaza Strip on Monday saw some Palestinians firing Qassam rockets into Israel, with others involved in a gun and rocket skirmish that touched off between Hamas and Fatah militants.
Two people were killed and 15 wounded in extensive fighting between the two parties in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Palestinian Ramatan news agency reported.
The Qassam rockets that showered Israel in the last few days are largely a result of Hamas' decision to resume fighting. Since Friday morning Palestinian militants have launched 81 projectiles, although only 44 reached Israel's border. Many rockets were aimed at the Israeli town of Sderot, partly because its large area means the inaccurate Qassams are likely to hit something if fired in its direction. Other rockets were fired towards an electric power plant south of Ashkelon.
On Monday Palestinians launched 19 projectiles; five Qassam rockets reached Israel and mainly hit open areas, the army spokesman reported.
Retired Israeli intelligence Brig. Gen. Yossi Ben-Ari, co-director of the Strategic Affairs Unit at the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, told United Press International he believed the escalation was the outcome of a vicious cycle of events that began months ago after a series of Islamic Jihad suicide bombings inside Israel. The Israelis went after the Islamic Jihad cell in the northern West Bank and that organization retaliated with attacks from Gaza, where it felt it was stronger.
Israeli counter attacks escalated to almost daily targeted strikes on cars, structures, access routes to launching sites -- and innocent civilians were hit.
The worst was Friday, when a family of seven was killed while picnicking on the beach. The Palestinians blamed Israeli artillery shelling for their deaths. The Israeli army launched an investigation that should be completed Tuesday evening, although officers were not sure the artillery was to blame.
Sources confirmed firing six artillery shells into the beach area but said the shelling stopped before the family was killed.
One defense source told UPI that Palestinians had recently planted mines in the vicinity because Israel Navy commandos had landed there and ambushed rocket launchers. The Israelis stopped making incursions there so the Palestinians removed the mines, but perhaps not all, the source speculated.
Whatever the cause, the Palestinians seemed to have no doubt Israel was guilty, and the government's spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, told The New York Times: "They killed innocent civilians who were enjoying their time on the beach and have nothing to do with military affairs... So I believe that we the Palestinians, including Hamas, have the right to respond and defend ourselves."
Haaretz newspaper's defense editor, Zeev Schiff, wrote Monday that the head of Hamas's politburo, Khaled Mashal, who is based in Damascus, decided to escalate the fighting. Mashal consulted with the heads of Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, was informed of the decision and did not object, Schiff added.
During the cease-fire period -- the 16-month Tahdiyah -- Hamas produced hundreds of rockets and dozens of them have been deployed "in various places in the Gaza Strip." Hamas is planning a daily attrition of Israel as well as suicide bombings to be launched from the West Bank, Schiff added.
According to this account, the initial decision to end the Tahdiyah was taken at the beginning of June. It was, in part, an attempt to "neutralize" President Mahmoud Abbas' planned referendum. Abbas is seeking popular approval for a paper that accepts the Palestine Liberation Organization's superiority to the Palestinian Authority and gives him a mandate to negotiate with Israel.
Hamas militants initially "acted under the cover of the (popular) resistance committees," but gave up the pretenses after Friday's incident, Haaretz reported.
Schiff did not reveal his sources but his account tallies with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's report to the Cabinet Sunday.
The Cabinet statement quoted Olmert as having said, "Hamas did not start operating this past weekend. For some time we have seen the involvement of Hamas in terrorist activities and in assisting terrorist activities."
The events taxed new Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who lives in Sderot. Some of his neighbors' homes were hit and residents are now on a hunger strike outside his home.
In a poll published Friday, only 31 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with Peretz' performance. Forty-one percent said they were unhappy; these results are doubly poor for a country in which defense ministers have always been very popular.
"It is not quite clear to him what he is supposed to do with (the defense portfolio) that is in his hands," wrote Yediot Aharonot commentator Alex Fishman.
The army Sunday sought a wide-scale air strike targeting senior Hamas activists but Peretz was held back.
He instructed officers, "To complete all the preparations to hit all the elements involved in shooting, be they the most senior decision makers or the perpetrators ... unless the shooting stops," an official statement said.
A senior defense source told UPI he expected this implicit threat to have "a tremendous impact" on Hamas' deicsion makers.
"The minute you earmark them as targets, their motivation drops," he said.
But Peretz has long favored negotiations with Abbas. How long can he hold back?
The answer might partly depend on the Qassams' accuracy. So far no Israelis have been killed since the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and that gives him time. But there were some close calls, such as one in which a rocket penetrated a classroom that was empty only becaue its key was lost. Damaging the power plant could also have serious repercussions, as it is a strategic target.
Meanwhile, internal Palestinian fighting continued. Two gunmen were killed Monday in a battle around the Preventive Security Service office in Rafah staffed by Fatah The men outside belonged to Hamas and the militants used rocket propelled grenades and mortar bombs, Haaretz reported. A Wafa reporter told UPI that Hamas had tried to seize the building.
