Hamas ends truce with Israel after airstrike

HAMAS said yesterday that the Islamic militant group would not renew an informal nine-month-old truce after Israel killed one of its leading activists in an airstrike.

The truce was brokered by Egypt which is expected to invite militant groups, including Hamas, to Cairo in coming weeks to discuss extending the agreement.

During the past nine months, violence has dropped sharply, and Hamas refrained from carrying out suicide bombings in Israel. But it has repeatedly fired rockets from Gaza at Israeli towns, in what it said was retaliation for Israeli truce violations.

On Tuesday, Hamas activist Fawzi Abu Kara and Hassan Madhoun, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, were killed in an airstrike in Gaza.

“In the face of this Zionist aggression, no one should dream about the renewal of this truce,” said a Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri.

Yesterday, Israeli troops entered the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh and killed Rafat Turkman, an al-Aqsa militant, as he tried to escape, residents said. In the West Bank, an Israeli soldier was killed in a roundup of militants near Jenin. Also, an Islamic Jihad militant involved in a suicide bombing in Israel last week was arrested.