Rockets hit Israel after W. Bank raid

Islamic Jihad fired rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip yesterday after Israel killed five militants in the occupied West Bank, in renewed violence that threatened prospects for an Egyptian-brokered truce. No one was injured by the salvo against the border town of Sderot, the first such attack by Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant faction, since March 5.

Israel, which had not struck in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in a week, said it carried out two air strikes against rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip. No one was hurt.

The Israeli army said militants fired at least 22 rockets yesterday.

Islamic Jihad had vowed revenge after Israeli troops killed four of its members in the West Bank on Wednesday. The fifth man belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah.

Israel has rebuffed Hamas's call for the West Bank to be included in any ceasefire arrangement.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the operations showed that Israel would continue to "pursue and attack all murderers with blood on their hands and their dispatchers".

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who spoke at the Islamic Summit in Senegal, demanded that Israel stop what he called "disproportionate and excessive force" against Palestinians.

Daoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said Israel had "wiped out any chance to talk about calm at this time".

Hamas said Israeli "aggression" risked destroying Cairo's efforts to mediate a ceasefire, seen as key to securing enough quiet for there to be progress in US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and Mr Abbas.

But Hamas, which is seeking a reopening of the territory's borders as part of a truce deal, stopped short of abandoning the ceasefire talks in which Islamic Jihad also has participated.

Hamas has largely held its fire since March 3, when Israel ended a five-day offensive against militants in which more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and two soldiers died.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for every rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, territory the group seized from Mr Abbas's Fatah faction in June.