Border closing tests Gaza ceasefire

The tenuous ceasefire is tested to the full after Islamic Jihad responded to the killing of two of its operatives.

Israeli soldiers rest on the border with the Gaza strip yesterday.

RAMALLAH // The tenuous ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is being tested to the full after Islamic Jihad responded to the killing of two of its operatives in the West Bank by firing three rockets across the Gaza border on Tuesday. Israel called the rocket fire a breach of the ceasefire agreement and closed commercial crossings into the impoverished area yesterday morning. All sides would appear to have too much interest in maintaining the calm for the truce to break down fully, however, although periods of brinkmanship, like that witnessed in the past two days, have a habit of taking on a logic of their own. "Today's rockets were exceptional," Daoud Shihab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said on Tuesday. Shihab said his group was still committed to the ceasefire, which, in the short term at least, "bolsters the steadfastness" of the Palestinian people. "But if Israeli operations in the West Bank continue to kill our people it will not only be Islamic Jihad that will respond but all those who truly claim they are resistance factions." Yesterday, Israel closed commercial crossings into Gaza, with Ehud Barak, the defence minister, saying that he and Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, had agreed on the Israeli response to the rocket fire. Israel had somewhat eased its restrictions on the number and kinds of goods it allowed into Gaza in line with the ceasefire agreement that came into effect last Thursday. Hamas responded to yesterday's closing by saying it considered it a breach of the agreement, but would stay its fire. If the calm holds, Israel will likely reopen the crossings again. A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel later informed Egypt the crossings would reopen to goods today, Reuters news agency reported. Both Israel and Hamas, for different reasons and in spite of widespread public scepticism that the truce will hold, would stand to lose if the conflict resumed. But one important factor will be whether Hamas can successfully persuade other factions to hold off on mortar fire across the border. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said yesterday the movement would not police other factions, but Hamas will be keen that crossings are reopened as soon as possible. Another factor will be how Israel decides to act in the West Bank, which it refused to include in the Gaza ceasefire agreement. The three rockets fired were prompted by an Israeli army raid early Tuesday into Nablus in the West Bank that saw two Islamic Jihad militants killed, according to Shihab. One of the militants was Tariq Abu Ghali, a leader of the al Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, who had escaped three previous assassination attempts. Having excluded the West Bank from the ceasefire, Israel may well have been testing the resolve of Hamas in enforcing an end to rocket fire from Gaza with this latest operation. But the arrests and killings of Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank also strains relations with the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, with whom Israel is negotiating an end to the conflict. The PA has deployed security reinforcements in Nablus and Jenin under an agreement reached between Israel and Salam Fayyad, the prime minister, to transfer security responsibility back to the Palestinians one area at a time. Mr Fayyad has accused Israel several times of undermining his government's attempts at asserting control over the West Bank by engaging in operations like Tuesday's, and Israel would appear to have an interest in limiting the number of such operations so as not to jeopardise the Gaza truce or alienate the West Bank leadership. "I think Israel is doing in the West Bank what is in its interests, not because it wants to test the others," said Yoram Schweitzer, a senior research fellow at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, in an interview last week. "The issue is actually if Hamas is willing to curtail others, either by consent or force." Shihab, however, said Israel wanted to keep pressure on the West Bank while excluding Gaza to further the division between the two occupied territories and undermine the truce. "We are used to Israeli violence and the breaking of agreements." Nevertheless, Mr Barak's decision to close crossings rather than engage in a military operation in Gaza can be seen as an Israeli attempt to maintain quiet as he and Mr Olmert, the two main coalition partners, moved yesterday to ensure government stability for the coming months. @Email:[e-mail]