JERUSALEM, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Palestinians and Israelis traded mortar and missile fire Monday, with Hamas firing a mortar into Israel and Israelis shooting a missile at a vehicle.
Witnesses said two people were wounded in the missile attack, The Jerusalem Post reported. Israeli military officials said the two injured men were part of the cell that fired the mortar shell into Israel.
The latest cease-fire breach -- begun when Hamas launched mortars into the Eskhol region -- was the second in two days. Late Sunday Israeli airplanes struck Hamas targets throughout Gaza after at least 15 Qassam rockets and mortar shells peppered the western Negev earlier that day.
"The quiet in the south is a result of the serious blow dealt to Hamas in Gaza and even if takes a little more time and a few more shots are fired, this is the nature of events of this kind," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio, referring to the three-week Israeli military operation in Gaza.
Barak added, "(If) we have to, we will hit Hamas again."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised a "harsh" and "disproportionate" response to the renewal of rocket fire into Israel when he addressed the Cabinet Sunday.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas security building in the central Gaza Strip and two other targets in the coastal territory, Haaretz reported.
On the diplomatic front, reports indicate a cease-fire may be signed as soon as Thursday in Cairo, Haaretz said. Besides talks between Egypt and Hamas, Israel is negotiating with Egypt as well, with Israeli defense officials telling Egyptian leaders that Israel rejects the Egypt-Hamas proposition of a new cease-fire lasting a limited time, Haaretz said.
