Ceasefire on the rocks as Israel kills Hamas militants

ISRAEL killed seven Hamas gunmen in air strikes yesterday in retaliation for a deadly Palestinian rocket attack, resuming its assassination policy against militants as a five-month-old truce appeared to be unravelling.

The militant Islamic group Hamas said the back-to-back missile strikes on cars in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would “open the doors of hell” on Israel and said it was reconsidering its commitment to the ceasefire.

The surge of violence, one of the worst since Israel and the Palestinian Authority declared an end to hostilities in February, raised the possibility of disruptions to Israel’s planned pull-out of settlers from occupied Gaza next month.

The Israeli strikes followed the killing of a young Israeli woman in a rocket barrage on Thursday that sparked the fiercest internal fighting in years between militants and Palestinian police, who confronted them trying to stop further salvoes. Two Palestinian bystanders were killed in the gun battles.

The Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency in Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas, struggling to salvage the truce and keep control in the face of a growing Hamas challenge, ordered police to act amid Israeli threats of reprisals.

Israel launched a series of air raids against Hamas targets in Gaza before dawn yesterday, causing no casualties. Hours later, three Hamas militants were killed in an Israeli helicopter strike near the major Jewish settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said. Within minutes, Israeli helicopters over Gaza City launched a missile into a car, killing four Hamas militants inside, hospital officials said.